Essentially a song about being in a job that makes you happy, Dury claimed in a 1984 interview with Penthouse that while not condemning 9-to-5 jobs, he had written the song to make people question their lives, echoing the sentiments of his earlier single "Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll".

The song's verses list a number of things the song's narrator could have been, from a driver, poet, teacher or soldier 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 and roll don't mind'.

The song can be found in abundance today, not only on Dury compilations but on various punk, new wave and rock albums.

Part of the bridge section of "What a Waste" was sampled by A Tribe Called Quest on their 1991 single "Can I Kick It?".

On their 1998 eponymous album, English indie rock band, theaudience quote the song in the chorus of the track "Running Out Of Space": 'It's high time for summer and for honesty / when you're drunk you will sing What A Waste', followed by a short phrase on keyboards based on the chorus guitar riff.