| "Go Insane" | ||||||||
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| Single by Lindsey Buckingham | ||||||||
| from the album Go Insane | ||||||||
| Released | July 3, 1984 | |||||||
| Genre | Rock | |||||||
| Length | 3:08 | |||||||
| Label | Reprise/ Warner Music Group | |||||||
| Writer(s) | Lindsey Buckingham | |||||||
| Producer | Lindsey Buckingham, Gordon Fordyce | |||||||
| Lindsey Buckingham singles chronology | ||||||||
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"Go Insane" is the title track of Lindsey Buckingham's second solo album. Released as a single, 3 July 1984, it became Buckingham's second solo hit (after "Trouble", three years earlier). "Go Insane" is Buckingham's most recent US solo hit (peaking at #23 in the Billboard Hot 100 chart); on the other hand, it did not chart in the United Kingdom.
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Lindsey Buckingham has said, when asked about the meaning of the song, insanity can said to be very relative to the context you find yourself in. An example might be a very acceptable and typical behavior for a group of people in a little rock and roll microcosm, might be grounds for someone being committed if they worked in a bank.
"Looking at it that way we all tend to go insane a little bit, I think that's ok. I think that's one of the things the album is saying - it is ok to go insane, it can be quite cathartic actually, to watch yourself go out to the edge and sort of reel yourself back in - now hopefully you do reel yourself back in.
"Another point the album makes is if you happen to be with someone else who takes that sort of behavior too far, and you're not willing to give up whatever that relationship might be - then you will tend to go a little bit insane with them.
"And if they are doing that you will experience a lot of the things they are simply by virtue of being a part of that. The important thing is not to take it too far, I guess."
At the time, he had a relationship that was close to ending (or maybe had just ended) with Carol Ann Harris. According to Buckingham, she was using drugs and Buckingham tried to stop her, but with no results. Two of his lines, "I lost my power in this world / Cause I did not use it", could be interpreted to be about how he had waited too long to try to stop her. Harris, however, in her book "Storms," claims that she only used the drug with the band and her friends and Buckingham used it in equal abundance.
At concerts, notably on The Dance, he did an acoustic flamenco-styled version of Go Insane, which featured just him and a nylon-string guitar.
During the 2008 Gift of Screws tour, as well as Fleetwood Mac's 2009 Unleashed tour, he played the original version of the song. He returned to performing the solo acoustic version on his 2011 Seeds We Sow tour.
The song was featured in the Miami Vice first season episode "The Great McCarthy."
The song was featured in the Northern Exposure second season episode, "Spring Break."
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