Wasted

I think I have an idea what this song means. But first, the missing lyrics where the question mark is-

You're seven years old, Got his bat in his hand He's looking for his father And he doesn't understand

In general, I think this song is about wasted lives. For the first verse, aka the first three stanzas here, I think they are stories. The first one about a boy in the hospital, his mom with him, at 2:45 in the morning, and he dies so his dad is called "in the middle of the night." The second stanza would be about a 16 year old who gets in a fatal accident, wrecking his body and the car. The third would then be a man with visceral cancer (a cancer of the soft organs mainly in the abdomen) which he probably never realized he had and then it came on him too fast and killed him in a day.

Those lives were wasted, these people died young and unfairly.

The second set of stanzas I think follows one boy- his dad was always too busy to play with him, his parents wanted their dreams and ideas to be his life, and he doesn't want that at all so when he leaves he just doesn't care about them because they didn't care about what he wanted. Then he gets married and has kids, but he never wanted them either, he based his life on what most people did instead of what he wanted.

Those three stanzas sort of show how his life can be seen as wasteful because he never wanted the life he was in. If he had followed what he really wanted he would have been happier.

I think the third set of stanzas are about the son of the person in the second set of stanzas. The first stanza is the present with the second stanza reflecting his past, and the third him thinking about his future. In the second stanza he is not sure whether following his dreams is going to lead him in the right place, or if that place will exist at all. But, he wants to get out because his dad doesn't care about him. In the first stanza everything is busy and he feels alone, but "Got his life in his hands," so it looks like him following what he wanted was the right thing to do. The third stanza reflects how similar he thinks he is to his dad when he was those ages. He doesn't want to be miserable like his dad was or regret things he did or didn't do, and he doesn't want his life to have been based on principle and what people usually do. He "has a clue" because he knows what he is going to do and he wish his father would have done the same thing, because "She would never be alone in this wasted life." His dad either wasted his mom's life because he never wanted her to begin with, or she would not have been included in his dad's wasted life if he had done what his heart/gut told him to do.

Hence the chorus "We're wasted, no, no, no, we're all wasted."

These lives were wasted by something natural, other people, or themselves, and someone is finally trying to change it so he doesn't waste his life.

Sorry that was so long, and I hope it at least made some sense. I absolutely love this song. It's amazing, and I really like listening to the verses and just thinking about it all.

..In addition to the third set of stanzas, in the third stanza, I think he means it would have been nice for his dad to have not included his mom in his wasted life.

I don't think that he wasted his life, because he is doing what he wants and even though it can be difficult and lonely at times he is satisfied with it.

Funny how all of you seem to think this song isn't about you but other people who waste their lives.

We're ALL wasted.

This song is quite obvious in meaning.

In general, life is taken for granted in one way or another. We all realize that life is short (hints the line: "We're on the run, but we are aware...").

For instance, the 32 year old who has cancer, knows that his life is going to be affected by his disease, so he let's his cancer control him.

Just like the 7 year old boy whose father is neglecting him......he is always going to be affected by his father's lack of attention towards him and in turn, that will subconsciously affect his future relationships.

I especially like the part about "aimless stares" because the guy (presumably the singer) doesn't want his life to be controlled by what he thinks he has to do.

He doesn't want to be another "wasted" life.

I think I understand this song, but who really knows. It's just really touching. The first stanza, i think, refers to a baby being born at 2:45 but due to complications, he dies shortly after which is when his father gets a call in the middle of the night and the baby's breaths get short and his chest gets tight.

Second verse refers to a 16 year old who gets in a car accident because he was driving too fast and swerves to the left and dies.

Third verse is about a man who believed himself to be invincible the whole "it'll never happen to me" mindset. Then he found out he had visceral cancer, they caught it way too late and he was "sick in the morning and he died in the night."

The chorus refers to the fact that all of these people have wasted lives. They died young, maybe before they could do something great in their lives. So, maybe we're all wasted.

The next three stanzas are connected. They refer to a boy whose parents never payed attention to him. His father never showed up to his baseball games and the boy doesn't understand why. Then at age 18 he can't wait to move out of the house because his parents never cared about his dreams. However, the parents don't understand that so they wonder why he never calls once he moves out. The boy grows up to be 32 but he never wanted his kids or wife and he'd never actually been truly happy in his life. Which is why his life was "wasted." Because he was never happy with himself or anything he did.

The last couple stanzas are about Will, the lead singer of Cartel. He's 23 now and his life is so busy with all the tours and concerts and all those things that everything gets in the way. He graduated from The Heritage School in Noonan, GA and he was "18, couldn't wait to move out." And now, 5 years later he's beginning to doubt if all of his dreams were actually attainable. He wonders about if when he is 32 if he'll be miserable.

that was the longest thing ever, i'm really sorry. but hope i could help a little bit.

i love cartel! one of my fave bands :)

I think by. Were All Wasted, it's a play on the line, Were All Ways Dead. As in We are dead in all ways. And then it talks about the ways we die. Thats my opinion

The core idea of the song (to me; it's message typically varies a little depending on the listener) is how easily our lives can become a huge waste. A baby dies in childbirth. A teenager dies because of reckless driving. A 32-year-old discovers he had cancer and the plans he had for his life are now obsolete because "he's sick in the morning and he dies in the night." A 7-year-old just wants to play with his dad, but his dad is too busy with work. A 32-year-old is depressed because he has lived his whole life based on meaningless principles (like the idea that everyone should get married and have kids). The 23-year-old is the person I relate to the most. He (presumably) just got out of college ("got his life in his hands"), but he doesn't understand what the next step in his life is supposed to be ("looking all around, but he doesnt understand"). Next you find out that when the 23-year-old turns 32 he will be miserable, and this is a reference to the 32-year-old previously mentioned.

As you hear the song, it sounds like he is just singing about a bunch of different people whose lives have been wasted, but in the end it all comes together to show that it was the same person the whole time, and it is very easy to see how each stage of the persons life leads to the others and the many ways a person can waste their life.

I think that the song is all about the baby in the beginning. it didnt really die, because "the mother never knew he only had a few left" well, if he died right then, she would think back and say hmm, he only had a few left but then hes 16, and driving too fast, (not uncommon) and "takes a turn to the left, it WOULD be his last." meaning one wrong turn could completely eff your life. So if he turns to the right, nobody in the car would have died that night- the choice actually made. but now he's 32, and invincible, he thinks he has a whole life ahead of him with the mindset that "ohh that'll never happen to me" Even though he could have died in the previous stanzas. We all could die at any moment. I believe that's what the first verse is trying to get across, and notice that throughout the rest of the song, "he" doesnt get passsed 32, because he got "sick in the morning and he died in the night" at that age. then the second verse just goes on to tell how Wasted his life was. and the consistant mention of the father adds to me thinking its the same person. Also, if the song writer wanted it to be 3 different people in the beginning, they most likely would have alternated genders, but it's always "he."

If anyone can figure out what this song means, you win at life.

whoever transcribed these lyrics is deaf and an idiot

the second line is obviously "the baby takes his first breath"

lots of errors in this and other songs....