Wasted Years (Iron Maiden acoustic cover) 3/365

3/365 Wasted Years is a favorite of mine not so much because of the music, I prefer other Maiden tunes especially from the first 5 albums, but because the lyrics are a reminder to make it count, a sort of carpe diem, forget the past and live for today. The song in bare form works. Its verse/chorus construction consists of verses in the minor key (Em) and chorus moving to its relative major (G). Still have to find a way to incorporate the intro lick on solo guitar with some sort of bass. I usually play this acoustic version in a duo.
I was heavily into Iron Maiden as a kid and Piece of Mind, their 4th album was one of my first. I'd heard songs from their first 3 albums and had The Number of the Beast on a tape a friend made for me but Piece of Mind and Powerslave I actually owned. Eventually I would rebuy those first 5 albums on cd.
Wasted Years is on their 6th full length album, Somewhere in Time, an album I never really got into although I heard it when it came out and a few times after, I only really know "Wasted Years" from there and maybe "Alexander The Great".

Funny thing is I came to realize that Wasted Years would be a good cover when I heard it on a cd from Classic Rock Magazine called The Classic Rock Songbook Vol. 1 interpreted by a group named Damone.

I started playing it with a friend of mine, Alexandra singing cause she was really into that version of it, if I remember correctly.
A couple of years ago I started to play The Trooper as an acoustic cover with my buddy Polo on guitar and decided what the heck, let's add Wasted Years to the set.
So yes, I would usually perform it in a duo setting but I've started to play in my own sets because frankly, it's a wonderful song.

The song was written by guitarist Adrian Smith.



Wasted Years - Iron Maiden (Originally released in 1986 on the album Somewhere In Time)