Wrong by Lindsey Buckingham

Album: Out of the Cradle (1992)

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This song has a lot of possible origins, from the politics of the time (near the end of the presidency of George H.W. Bush and 12 years of Republican rule), to something a bit more intimate: an unlucky-in-love guy who's blown yet another relationship. In any case, the sentiment of someone who continues to make the same mistakes over and over without ever learning is pretty universal. >>
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S.D. - Denver, CO
In 1991 Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood penned his autobiography My Life And Adventures in Fleetwood Mac, in which he detailed incidents such as Buckingham once slapping his co-singer and former girlfriend Stevie Nicks and bending her backwards over a car. In an interview with Q magazine June 2009, Buckingham declined to comment on that particular incident. He then said: "There's stuff in that book that's completely untrue. Mick admits that he was high during the time that he was conveying information to the ghost-writer." Buckingham added that this song "was about Mick basically getting it wrong."

Comments: 4

R from ÉireThe band has always found it best practice to paint their ex-guitarists as flawed or villains. Each and every one, Peter Green, who really was the whole reason there was a band despite it being named after two sideshow, no-name performers, was villainised for wanting to give band profits to charity - this prompted his firing for being "wildly on drugs" - his dissatisfaction with the band was immortalised in "The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Pronged Crown)"; Danny Kirwan was similarly fired for supposed drug-induced "lapses on stage", despite Fleetwood saying he was the best technician/producer they had prior to Buckingham; yet Mick, et al., were all having drug-induced lapses on stage, and they were the ones introducing these drug problems to fellow newcomers. The straightest of the straight members of the band - Bob Welch, he got entirely disrespected by the band, because they screwed him out of royalties they owed him; he sued, he won, and they stiffed him when the band got inducted into the Hall of Fame, while the other former members were invited to show up (and some did, that were living and as able), as retaliation. Now, the villain of the moment happens in 2021 to be Buckingham, as he was in '87 for skipping out on the Tango in the Night tour, because just as it was back then, Stevie Nicks had turned it into a toxic environment, and Mick Fleetwood again between his terrible history of fiscal management (he blew all of the money on the Tusk Tour which was supposed to be the largest grossing tour in history (at the time) and made it turn no profit, since he decided he wanted to be the band's manager, and ruined the band's finances - "Advance spent some time ago...") and just seeing $$ signs in his eyes has always opted for the latter over quality of music or the act of music-making altogether, which has always been at odds with Buckingham's own philosophy of "Why bother being a musician if you're just basically going to be a cover hand of yourselves?"

This song is more relevant now than ever, though perhaps the lyric should change to "...the woman just got it wrong..." either way, his assertion, and the admissions, prior, by the other bandmembers of being utterly uncontrollably intoxicated with substances influencing their perception and decisions really warps the narratives. Getting sober has its advantages and one (actually probably two (that's why Christine McVie and Buckingham have a decent working relationship)) of the bandmembers grew up by 1987, and the rest were left behind.
Steve from Torrance, CaI never thought this song was about politics or romance gone wrong. With phrases such as "advance was spent", "agent's on the phone", "puttin' on the hits", and " piggy on the cover", it seems to be an indictment of celebrity in general, and the music business in particular.
Ally from Phoenix, AzSeveral interviews from the band member suggest that the incident in Mick's book (mentioned above) is true. Stevie Nicks has said this herself and, I honestly believe that Mick Fleetwood wouldn't just make this up about his band mate.
B from Oregon, OrWhen the song was released, there were stories about how Wrong was a thinly veiled response to Mick Fleetwood's latest book on the Mac including Lindsey.

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