John Mellencamp & Bruce Springsteen, 'Wasted Days'

John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen have both assembled discographies stretching back to the 1970s, and each spent the '80s dominating pop radio with hits that remain inescapable. But they've never actually recorded in the studio together until now.

"Wasted Days" wastes little time getting to the point, as Mellencamp opens the song with a series of questions, including "How many summers still remain?" and "How many minutes do we have left?" To say a sense of imminent mortality hangs heavily over "Wasted Days" would be an understatement, as the singers grapple with lives lived well past middle age — not to mention a world in existential crisis. Still, as bleak and mournful as the song gets, it also carries an implicit message about making the most of the years, months and minutes we've got left.

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