The song deals with subject of homesickness and
alienation, as well as the negative aspects of the band's nearly year long previous tour and personal problems that Smith and other band members were going through in that period. Despite guitarist
Adrian Smith writing the song on a
guitar synthesiser, it is the only song on
Somewhere in Time to not feature one. The cover depicts the band mascot
Eddie's point of view as he flies a time machine. Only a part of Eddie's face is seen, as a reflection in a screen. the single cover also features the
TARDIS from the BBC series
Doctor Who. Riggs describes the illustration as "a duffer. It's a technical illustration of a keyboard of a time machine, with Eddie reflected in the window, because it was the only thing we could think of that wouldn't give Eddie away".
Music video The music video for "Wasted Years" featured black-and-white footage of the band performing during a September 1986 band rehearsal in
Frankfurt am Main,
West Germany. The footage was mixed in with personal home movies, music video clips and photographs from their career up to that point. ==Live performances==