"Control" is a song by the rock band Puddle of Mudd. It is the first single off of their album Come Clean. It was released in July 2001, was written by Wes Scantlin and was co-written by Brad Stewart. The song "Control" was popular, peaking at number 3 on the Mainstream Rock chart, number 3 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart and number 68 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Meaning and background
"Control" is about a relationship that Puddle of Mudd member Wes Scantlin was in. Scantlin told MTV that he was going "going out with an uncontrollable person" and said that he was uncontrollable, too. Scantlin then told MTV:
"But the intimacy was really, really good. ... [There were] some freaky-deaky things going on. The end of the song is the wake-up [where you realize], "Man, I can't deal with this anymore." The mental frustration isn't worth the bonus that you get intimacy-wise. When I wrote those lyrics, I was going, "Ah, man, I don't know if the record company's going to let this fly." I didn't know what anybody in the band was going to think."[1]