Behind the Songs: Wrong Train

A selection of quotes from The Psychedelic Furs on the song "Wrong Train".

Interviewer: "Is there a song you get more pleasure playing [live]?"

Richard Butler: "No, on both these tours I just loved playing all of them. And the new songs. There's a new song called 'Wrong Train' which I really like playing." (iJamming! 2001)

Richard Butler (on how his former first wife thought of the song): "She gets a kick out of it. She likes sarcasm. She likes the bit that says, "A wife that hates me, so does her boyfriend.'" (Interview with Robert Cherry, 2001)

Interviewer: "If we go back to the year 2000, you rejoined the Psychedelic Furs in a reformed lineup. As a big fan of the band, I attended many of the subsequent tours. They recorded a new song 'Alive' for a greatest hits package and two others ['Cigarette' and 'Wrong Train'] for the companion DVD. Yet I sensed a reluctance to record new material. Was that a trigger that forced your hand to do the Satellite Paradiso record and depart from the Psychedelic Furs?"

John Ashton: "Yes Dave. That was the biggest trigger of all." (Dave's on Tour 2016)

Tim Butler (on Made Of Rain's songs coming together quickly): "Except for 'Wrong Train,' all the songs on the album were written in five or six months. 'Wrong Train' was probably written roundabout 2006, and we played it in our live set." (The Aquarian 2020)

Tim Butler: "It's more of a traditional sounding rock and roll song, before we went into the studio we sort of messed it around a bit. It came out a lot heavier and more driving, and it went into a different direction. For me, that's my favorite song on [Made Of Rain]." (Forbes 2020)

Richard Butler: "We'd been writing bits and pieces over the years. 'Wrong Train', that's been around for a while." (HMV 2020)

Richard Butler: "It is a fairly sad song. It's got the line 'A wife that hates me, so does her boyfriend.' It always makes me laugh, though." (Interview with Janice Long, 2020)

Tim Butler: "One of the oldest songs on [Made Of Rain] is 'Wrong Train,' which was written in, I guess, 2004; four or five." (Interview with Kyle Meredith, 2020)

Richard Butler: "From time to time, we'd write a new song, rehearse it and play it. One of them made it onto [Made Of Rain] ('Wrong Train')." (Magnet Magazine 2020)

Tim Butler: "One song on [Made Of Rain], 'Wrong Train', is quite old, but it's been totally re-envisioned." (Music Week 2020)

Richard Butler (on Made Of Rain's songs): "They're all new songs besides one ['Wrong Train'], I think, which has been around for a little while." (Out Of The Box (Q104.3) 2020)

Richard Butler: "There's a couple of songs [on Made Of Rain], one song in particular. It's been around for a little while and that's 'Wrong Train,' which we wrote a little while ago. But it's a great song and we've never really released it before." (Out Of The Box (Q104.3) 2020)

Richard Butler: "One of my favorite lines here comes on 'Wrong Train': 'A wife that hates me... so does her boyfriend'. It makes me laugh! Sure there's a certain sorrow to it as well, but... it's dark comedy." (Record Collector 2020)

Tim Butler: "'Wrong Train' had been around for a while. Back in, I guess it was 2006, I'd actually taken that musical idea up to [John Ashton's] and we worked on it and he put in some ideas and stuff. So that was a song written by John and I that we've totally reimagined musically for [Made Of Rain]." (Rock & Roll Globe 2020)

Richard Butler: "One of the songs on [Made Of Rain], 'Wrong Train,' we've been playing live for some time." (Rock Cellar Magazine 2020)

Interviewer: "You've talked about how when you write your lyrics, very often, you are realizing some kind of truth about yourself. What's an example of a Psychedelics Furs song that gleaned some insight into one of your personal truths?"

Richard Butler: "I would say 'Wrong Train,' to a degree.

"My first and only marriage was sort of crumbling, and it made me examine in a very negative, pessimistic kind of way the whole move to the suburbs. It made me imagine somebody else's life perhaps, who had moved out and had a similar or perhaps more tragic time of it than I had." (Songfacts 2020)

Interviewer: "'Wrong Train' is my favorite song on [Made Of Rain]. The first time I heard the lyric, 'A wife that hates me / So does her boyfriend,' I laughed out loud. Were you trying to be funny or was that just the way it came out?"

Richard Butler: "When the line came to me, I realized it was funny and sort of heartbreaking at the same time. I liked that about it."

Interviewer: "Are these characters or is there biographical stuff in there as well?"

Richard Butler: "Probably a bit of both."

Interviewer: "It seems you're not too fond of the institution of marriage. There's 'Wrong Train' on the new album and songs dating back to the first album, 'Fall' and 'Wedding Song.' Is that accurate?"

Richard Butler: "Yeah, especially then."

Interviewer: "What about now?"

Richard Butler: "I'm actually engaged to be married this summer [laughs], so I've changed my mind about it a little." (Tidal 2020)

Tim Butler (on Made Of Rain): "We'd been sending demos back and forth since we'd got back together, but these are all pretty much new songs, except for 'Wrong Train', which was written in 2005." (Uncut 2020)

Richard Butler: "'Wrong Train' was a song that we wrote quite some time ago, it was never released and put on the back burner, but for the most part, the rest of [Made Of Rain] was pretty much within the last few months." (Vive Le Rock! 2020)

Richard Butler: "'Wrong Train' is literally about somebody that made the wrong choice with the wrong person and ended up in a place where he just didn't want to be. I did have that type of experience but it wasn't at the top of my mind when I wrote that song." (Vive Le Rock! 2020)

Tim Butler: "We did record 'Wrong Train' [for Made Of Rain], but a very different version to when we'd do it live. It had an overhaul." (WriteWyattUK 2020)

Interviewer: "You recently collaborated with artist and photographer Hans Neleman to create a music video for the track 'Wrong Train' off [Made Of Rain] which we are so lucky to be able to debut on our website asifmag.com. The video is a work of art and the stills that accompany it are incredible and reminiscent of your paintings. How did the collaboration come about?"

Richard Butler: "I've known Hans for a while and in fact he owns one of my paintings. He heard the new album and told me that he wanted to make a video. I told him that the next song the record company wants to put out is 'Wrong Train' which happens to be his favorite song on the record, and that's how it came about."

Interviewer: "There's such strong synergy between Hans' photo aesthetic and your paintings, and the graphic treatment by Peter Sebastian is really incredible. Tell me about the collaborative process."

Richard Butler: "Oh yeah Peter's work was perfect for it."

Interviewer: "I know Peter's work. He's also a great photographer and artist and we featured his work in a past issue. What inspired this collaboration between the three of you?"

Richard Butler: "Hans showed me some stuff Peter had done and it was in a very collagey kind of way and I really liked it. It seemed like something I hadn't seen in a video before, but I didn't want to make a video that illustrated the song, I didn't want to make a video where I was pretending to sing—we wound up compromising slightly in that I spoke the lyrics by saying the words after they were sung in the song so it didn't look lip synced. I wanted the video to match the mood of the song, not illustrate the song, and Hans did a great job of that." (AS IF Magazine 2021)

Richard Butler (on the "Wrong Train" video): "'Wrong Train' continues the black and white textured, mysterious feel of the previous videos from Made Of Rain. It was a pleasure working along with Hans Neleman on this project. The creativity Hans, Peter Sebastian and their team brought shows in every frame. Much like in paintings, imagery in this video is altered to where it is seen in an entirely different way." (Broadway World 2021)

John Ashton: "When I first got back together with [Richard and Tim Butler] Richard said, 'Do you have any ideas?' and I had us – an idea I'd been knocking around which turned into a song called 'Wrong Train,' which is now on [Made Of Rain]. So it's a 20 year old song on the new album so go figure, I don't know." (Everyone Loves Guitar podcast 2021)

Richard Butler: "['Wrong Train'] was written at the time of a break up which initially inspired it, but it took wings from there. The line, 'a wife that hates me' is kind of a joke. It made me laugh anyway. Still does!" (GoodTimes 2022)