You always have to be aware of the local axis of your objects. You can display the local axis with f7->draw panel->axis. If you add an object and aren’t in top view or if you rotated the object while in object mode the local and global axis won’t be the same. ctrl-a is a quick way to make them the same. It is a good idea to do a ctrl-a on your object before parenting, tracking, and applying modifiers – it will save you a lot of head scratching later.