"Come Undone" lyrically tells the story of a life of fame unravelling in excess, featuring some "wry" observations from Williams including the telling lines of the song's bridge: "Do another interview/Sing a bunch of lies/Tell about celebrities that I despise/And sing love songs/We sing love songs/So sincere".
Music video
The music video features a hungover Robbie waking up in the morning after a large house party the previous evening. He then proceeds to walk around the house, wearing pink socks, as flashbacks of the events of the night before are shown. As the song reaches its climax, Williams is seen participating in three-way sex with two women. These shots are interspersed with graphic and unsettling images of snakes, rats and bugs, mostly crawling on beautiful women. In the final shots, the two women have become men in drag, perhaps a subtle reference to the media's infatuation with Williams' sexuality. The song also contains numerous explicit words.
Controversy
The video was heavily censored by MTV Networks Europe for depicting a fully clothed Williams having three-way sex with both women and men in drag. The uncensored version of the video was released as a DVD single in Europe and was also included on the Enhanced CD single. BBC Radio 2 also banned the song for its explicit content. During this time, it was confirmed that Williams and Guy Chambers were to officially part ways.
Knebworth performances
A memorable performance of the song took place at one of Williams' concerts at Knebworth in August 2003. Singing to 125,000 people he interjected with "Britain, I'm your son", and further interacted with the audience when he brought a girl up on stage.
Chart performance
The song managed to reach number-four in the United Kingdom, but it fell out of the top ten in its second week; however, controversy surrounding the music video kept the album on the charts. Worldwide, the single did not equal the success of Williams' previous single, "Feel". To date, "Come Undone" has sold 85,000 copies in the UK.
Formats and track listings
These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "Come Undone". UK CD
