“Wasted Days” by John Mellencamp (ft. Bruce Springsteen)
As we have alluded to in the second-half of the article, at this moment both John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen are seniors in the game. And as we have seen with other such artists, such as Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan, who have come out with songs as of late, when they do they tend to be more credibly insightful than your average pop fare.
And in this case what the vocalists are in fact speaking to, comprehensively, is the concept of age. What they are basically saying throughout “Wasted Days”, as implied by the title, is that time is finite. And no, this isn’t one of those tracks where as a result of this realization, listeners are being admonished to make the most of their lives per se. Rather the thesis sentiment, that “we watch our lives just slip away to more wasted days”, is more like a statement.
Basically this isn’t so much about maximizing time allotted but the fact that we simply don’t tend to do so. And reading in between the lines, what John and Bruce actually seem to be putting forth is an idea like don’t go through your life sweating the small stuff. And yes, actually being productive seems to be a part of the lesson also. For the end itself is ever-approaching. And when all is said and done, no one wants to be sitting around feeling as if they “wasted” their “days”.
John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen and “Wasted Days”
John Cougar Mellencamp is a singer from Indiana who traces his music career back to the mid-1970s. The 1980s were kinder though to him. This is because he not only got around to dropping seven albums but also the most successful of the over 20 studio projects he’s dropped to date, that being 1982’s American Fool.
The said project not only topped the Billboard 200 but has been certified quintuple-platinum by the RIAA, which is a pretty amazing feat for an album that came out back then. In fact throughout that decade, four of the seven albums John dropped proved to be RIAA multi-platinum successes, thus making the 1980s Mellencamp’s heyday.
And whereas he hasn’t been getting the same type of commercial and critical love in the 21st century, it should be noted that his last studio album to date, 2018’s Other People’s Stuff, did peak at number 7 on the Billboard 200 and reached the summit of Billboard’s Top Rock Albums and Folk Albums listings.
His featured artist on “Wasted Days”, Bruce Springsteen, is considered even more of a classic American musician and as such one whose music we have worked on quite a few times in the past.
The Boss, as Springsteen is often called, is a couple years John Mellencamp’s senior, and accordingly his discography is a few years older. And whereas throughout the years he has dropped fewer albums, as noted earlier Springsteen may be, all things considered, more famous. One reason for that, somewhat oddly considering that the Boss is 72 years old as of the writing of this post, is that albums he has put in the 21st century, i.e. after turning 50 years old, have comprehensively been greater critical successes than the ones he released prior. For instance, his last nine studio albums, beginning with 2002’s The Rising and ending with 2020’s Letter to You, have all scored within the top 3 of the Billboard 200, with six of them actually topping the list.
Also pretty amazing is that Wasted Days, which was released as a standalone single on 29 September 2021, is actually the first collaboration between these two legendary artists.
This song was written exclusively by John Mellencamp. Springsteen played no role in its writing.
