♫ We Don’t Need Another Hero ♫

Posted on by under music

For some reason, this song popped into my head a couple of nights ago, and I bookmarked it for future reference.  I don’t know if somebody mentioned it, or if it just popped in through one of the many holes in my mind, but here it is and it won’t likely leave until I share it!

Written by Terry Britten and Graham Lyle, this is the theme song to the film Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. The third installment of the post-apocalyptic Mad Max series finds star Mel Gibson at the mercy of a nefarious leader named Aunty Entity, played by Tina Turner, who is determined to secure her power over Australia’s Bartertown.  Now, I have never seen a movie by the title of Mad Max, nor am I likely to in this lifetime, much as I do love Tina Turner, her voice, her persona, and her music.

It was Turner’s first film role in over a decade, the previous being The Acid Queen in the Who’s 1975 rock opera Tommy. But the glamorous ruler, clad in a chain-mail gown, wasn’t quite what Turner had in mind for her big-screen comeback.

“Aunty Entity was not as fierce as I wanted her to be.  I wanted her to go back into the trunk and pull out the clothes that she was wearing when she built that city, because she built herself up from nothing and she definitely wasn’t wearing that chain dress and those high-heeled shoes.”

Okay … um … whatever, I guess.

On the heels of Turner’s multiplatinum album Private Dancer, the song was released as a 7″ single, an extended version was released as a 12″ single and on the film’s soundtrack album. In the UK, a shaped picture disc was also released.

The power ballad received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song and a Grammy nomination for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 1986. As songwriters, Lyle and Britten received the 1985 Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically.

This song charted at #1 in Canada, #2 in the U.S., and #3 in the UK … not half bad, yes?

We Don’t Need Another Hero
Tina Turner

Out of the ruins
Out from the wreckage
Can’t make the same mistake this time

We are the children
The last generation (the last generation)
We are the ones they left behind

And I wonder when we
Are ever gonna change, change
Living under the fear
‘Til nothing else remains

We don’t need another hero
We don’t need to know the way home
All we want is life beyond the Thunderdome

Looking for something
We can rely on
There’s gotta be something better out there

Love and compassion
Their day is coming (coming)
All else are castles built in the air

And I wonder when we
Are ever gonna change, change
Living under the fear
‘Til nothing else remains

All the children say
We don’t need another hero
We don’t need to know the way home
All we want is life beyond the Thunderdome

So, what do we do with our lives?
We leave only a mark
Will our story shine like a light
Or end in the dark
Is it all or nothing?

We don’t need another hero
We don’t need to know the way home
All we want is life beyond Thunderdome

All the children say
(We don’t need another hero)
We don’t need another hero
(We don’t need to know the way home)
(All we want is life beyond the Thunderdome)

Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: Lyle Graham Hamilton / Britten Terence Ernest
We Don’t Need Another Hero lyrics © Wb Music Corp., Goodsingle Ltd., Hornall Brothers Music Limited

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30 thoughts on “♫ We Don’t Need Another Hero ♫”

  2. Pingback: ♫ We Don’t Need Another Hero ♫ | Filosofa’s Word | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

  5. Pingback: Ramblings of an Occupy Liberal

  6. It’s tough that you can’t watch the movie. Ah, the things life does to us. I think this song played a tremendous role of providing a musical denouement to all the movie had presented, including the children going forward, saved, to save us, after a hellacious action/chase scene. Hugs and cheers, Michael

    Liked by 3 people

    • Okay, so you got me on the action/chase scene and the song as an added bonus! I’ve added it to the list after all, but only at #20. Heck, I’ll likely be 90 by the time I make it that far down on the list! Hugs ‘n cheers, dear Michael!

      Liked by 1 person

  7. A great song, from a great singer. The writers also wrote What’s Love Got To Do With It. Graham Lyle was a chart musician here late 70s/early 80s. Firstly in the band McGuinness Flint (best known song When I’m Dead And gone) and then as half of the Gallagher Lyle duo (Heart On my Sleeve). A good choice.

    Liked by 4 people

  9. Great! What feelings! 😉 Thank you, Jill! Now, after some years of privatizesed blog and no declaration by WP.com how they are using their cookies, i moved to own hosting. I you agree, in future i will repost instead of reblog. Here is the new address (URL): https:// books.eslarn-net.de.
    This way i can bring the writers more in public too. xx Michael

    Liked by 3 people

  11. Jill, this is a cool song. There are parts of the Mad Max series that are profound, to balance out some of the stuff you may not want to watch. To me, one of them is the surviving children living on their own “tell the tell” to remind the others what happened to avoid it happening again. Keith

    Liked by 4 people

      • Jill, if you had only a finite number of movies you wanted or needed to watch, these would not be on a short list if I put the list together. They are interesting in that they are different and there are some clever parts, but my wife would echo the recommendation there are others needing to be on a short list. Keith

        Liked by 3 people

        • That was my thought, too. In a perfect world, where I had unlimited time to watch movies and could actually hear them and thus enjoy them, then maybe. But, I have neither hearing nor time, so … I’ll watch things that I find relevant and meaningful on those rare occasions that I can actually watch something. That said, the other night I re-watched for probably the 10th time since 1965, The Sound of Music, simply because it is my favourite movie of all time and I needed a dose of happiness.

          Liked by 1 person

  12. “Now, I have never seen a movie by the title of Mad Max, nor am I likely to in this lifetime”

    But butbut, you should! For realsies. All 4 MM movies are popcultural masterpieces, each one mirroring the zeitgeist of their inception. From dirty little family revenge flick via postapocalyptic,but still slightly hopeful fantasy adventures, to the last one which was a total decline into madness … by all characters. Very spectacular and exciting, non-boring entertainment for everybody. NaÍve but not stupid.

    Liked by 3 people

    • I shall give it due consideration! However, being nearly deaf, movies are difficult for me, for I am so focused on reading the closed captioning that I miss the action. So, I watch very few movies, and choose them carefully, usually historical ones. But thanks for the suggestion and I WILL consider trying at least one!

      Liked by 2 people

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