What a Waste

Infobox Single
Name = What A Waste

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Artist = Ian Dury & The Blockheads
from Album =
B-side = "Wake Up And Make Love With Me"
Released = April 1978 (U.K.)
Format = 7" single
Recorded =
Genre = Rock
Length = 3:25
Label = Stiff Records
Writer = Ian Dury / Rod Melvin]
Producer =
Certification =
Chart position = #9 (UK)
Last single = "Sweet Gene Vincent"
(1977)
This single = "What a Waste"
(1978)
Next single = "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick"
(1978)

"What A Waste" is a song and single by Ian Dury and the Blockheads, contrary to popular misconception it is their first single and was originally released on the Stiff Records single BUY 27 "What A Waste / Wake Up And Make Love With Me". The song has remained in The Blockhead's set following Ian Dury's death.

Essentially a song about being in a job that makes you happy, Dury claimed in his 1984 interview with "Penthouse" (his second) that while not condemning 9-to-5 jobs he had written it to make people in them question their life, echoing the sentiments of his earlier single Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll in that respect. Its verses list a number of things the song's narrator could have been, from a policeman, doctor and teacher to an inmate in a long term institution and the ticket man at Fulham Broadway Station before the chorus reveals that instead he chose to 'play the fool in a six piece band' highlighting some of the pitfalls of this (loneliness specifically) before deciding that 'rock 'n' roll doesn't mind'.

The song was written following the break-up of Kilburn and the Highroads in a lull between the formation of Ian Dury & the Kilburns and was written not with Chas Jankel but with Rod Melvin in mid-1975, two year before it was released, this writing partnership also spawned live favorites "England's Glory" and "I Made Mary Cry" however a third writing credit was given to Jankel, though like the songs co-written with Steve Nugent this third writing credit has gradually been phased out and the 2004 Edsel Records re-issue of Do it Yourself credits the song to Dury/Melvin solely. However in "Ian Dury & The Blockheads: Song By Song" John Turnbull (Guitar, The Blockheads) claims that they middle instrumental section was brought over from one of the songs four of the The Blockhead had written while they were their previous band Loving Awareness.

Ian Dury's first hit, What A Waste / Wake Up And Make Love With Me was released April 1978 just before the start of headlining tour, entering the Top 75 on April 29 and spent 12 weeks there peaking at number 9 in the UK Charts becoming Stiff Record's biggest selling single to date. A very limited 12" pressing was also released.

The single has most likely contributed to the confusion over exactly what Ian Dury songs are by 'Ian Dury & The Blockheads' including as it did Wake Up And Make Love With Me on its B-side, this is not a new version of the song re-recorded by the band but the version from New Boots and Panties!! which is not a Blockheads album (though some of the band do play on it), What A Waste however is a Blockheads track.

Re-releases and versions

Re-releases

Similar to Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll and Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick What A Waste can be found in abundance today, not only on Ian Dury compilations but on various Punk, New Wave and Rock albums. But, again like the other aforementioned singles, this was not the case at the time and was not available again until the compilation album Jukebox Dury, omitted from Do It Yourself in keeping with Dury's then policy of not including singles on albums.

Demon chose to add What A Waste to their re-issue of New Boots and Panties!! as the final track, most likely because Wake Up And Make Love With Me being its B-side and New Boots and Panties!! being Dury's current album at the time of its original release, in 2004 however Edsel Records have chosen to include at the first bonus track on their 2-disc re-issue of Do It Yourself instead most likely because it was the first Ian Dury & The Blockheads single.

Versions

Live versions can be found on both Warts 'n' Audience and Straight Form The Desk.

What A Waste is sometimes given an exclamation mark after it ('What A Waste!'), including on some official Ian Dury records (Warts 'n' Audience specifically) the original single omits the exclamation mark.

ources

*"Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll: The Life Of Ian Dury" by Richard Balls, first published 2000, Omnibus Press
*"Ian Dury & The Blockheads: Song By Song" by Jim Drury, first published 2003, Sanctuary Publishing.