Lyrics to
Wasteland

This version of Wasteland was released by The Jam in 1979.

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Meet me on the wastelands – later this day,
We’ll sit and talk and hold hands maybe,
For there’s not much else to do in this drab and colourless
place.
We’ll sit amongst the rubber tyres,
Amongst the discarded bric-a-brac,
People have no use for – amongst the smouldering embers of
yesterday.

And when or if the sun shines,
Lighting our once beautiful features,
We’ll smile but only for seconds,
For to be caught smiling is to acknowledge life,
A brave but useless show of compassion,
And that is forbidden in this drab and colourless world.

Meet me on the wastelands – the ones behind,
The old houses – the ones – left standing pre-war –
The ones overshadowed by the monolith monstrosities –
councils call homes.

And there amongst the shit – the dirty linen,
The holy Coca-Cola tins – the punctured footballs,
The ragged dolls – the rusting bicycles,
We’ll sit and probably hold hands.

And watch the rain fall – watch it – watch it –
Tumble and fall – tumble and falling –
Like our lives – like our lives –
Just like our lives.

We’ll talk about the old days,
When the wasteland was release when we could play,
And think – without feeling guilty –
Meet me later but we’ll have to hold hands.
Tumble and fall – tumble and falling –
Like our lives – like our lives –
Exactly like our lives.

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The Jam has released many songs over the years besides Wasteland. The Jam released songs from 1977 to 1992 spanning across albums like This Is The Modern World, In The City, All Mod Cons, Setting Sons, Sound Affects, Dig The New Breed, The Gift, and Extras. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by The Jam.

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About Lyrics and Wasteland by The Jam

The lyrics for Wasteland are defined as the words making up the song released by The Jam in 1979. It also includes the verses and words used by the background chorus in the song. Like many hit songs, the lyrics to Wasteland have different meanings to different people. While it is clear in some of the lyrics what the artist is trying to really say, only The Jam and those working with them know all of the meanings behind all of the lyrics to their songs.

Some folks are interested in word and phrase etymology. It is easy to understand the lyrics to Wasteland by The Jam if you think through it. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Wasteland" means the words set to the music of Wasteland, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by The Jam. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Wasteland and the lyrics to Wasteland are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of The Jam who came here looking just for the lyrics to Wasteland, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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