We Don’t Need Another Hero | Chords + Lyrics
Intro
| B | F# (F#sus2) | B | F# (F#sus2) |
| B/E | F# (F#sus2) | C#5 (riff) | C#5 (riff) |
Verse 1
| B | F# (F#sus2) | B | F# (F#sus2) |
Out of the ruins, out from the wreckage.
| B/E | F# (F#sus2) | C#5 | C#5 |
Can’t make the same mistake this time.
| B/G# | F# (F#sus2) | B/G# | F# (F#sus2) |
We are the children, the last generation (the last generation, generation).
| B/E | F# (F#sus2) | C#5 (riff) | C#5 (riff) |
We are the ones they left behind.
Bridge 1
| E | F# C#madd9 | C#madd9 |
And I wonder when we are ever gonna change, change.
| C#madd9 E | E F# | C#madd9 |
Living under the fear, ’til nothing else remains.
Chorus 1
| F# E/G# F# | E F# |
We don’t need another hero.
| F# E/G# F# | E F# |
We don’t need to know the way home.
| F# E/G# F# | E F# | C#m | C#m |
All we want is life beyond, the Thunderdome.
Verse 2
Looking for something, we can rely on.
There’s gotta be something better out there.
Oh, love and compassion. Their day is coming (coming).
All else are castles built in the air.
Bridge 2
| E | F# C#madd9 | C#madd9 |
And I wonder when we, are ever gonna change, change.
| C#madd9 E | E F# | C#madd9 | C#madd9 |
Living under the fear, ’til nothing else remains. All the children say:
Chorus 2
We don’t need another hero.
We don’t need to know the way home.
| F# E/G# F# | E F# | C#m B |
All we want is life beyond, the Thunderdome.
Middle 8
| A | F# |
So, what do we do with our lives?
| A | C#m |
We leave only a mark.
| D | E | D | E N.C |
Will our story shine like a light, or end in the dark? Give it all or nothing!
Solo
||: F# E/G# F# | E F# :|| x4
Chorus 3 (as chorus 1)
We don’t need another hero (hero, hero).
We don’t need to know the way home.
All we want is life beyond, the Thunderdome. All the children say:
Chorus 4
(We don’t need another hero). We don’t need another hero.
(We don’t need to know the way home) Ooh.
All we want is life beyond, the Thunderdome.
End
||: C#m :|| (hold)
We Don’t Need Another Hero Chords: A Deep Dive into the Song’s Harmonic Layout
Intro
Packed with slash chords, We Don’t Need Another Hero reveals its key trick right from the intro, as it alternates between chords I and V, but changes the bass note the third time:
||: B (I) | F# (V) :||
| B/E | F# | C#5 (II) | C#5 |
The B/E is often described as an Emaj7, but that’s not entirely accurate. Try it yourself and you’ll hear the difference. The C#5 is chord II, where we get that iconic bass line riff.
Verse
When the verse starts, we see the same progression again, but with another twist on the bass note — now B/G#.
This could be seen as a G#m7 (which would be the more accurate label), but writing it as B/G# helps highlight that we’re playing the same chord with a changed bass note.
The F# features a small motif, which I like to describe as F#sus2. I’ve marked it in brackets in the chords and lyrics where it appears briefly. In the chord chart below, I’ve written it as a smaller chord to reflect that it’s not a full, sustained sound.
You can find a TAB lesson for the guitar version of this keyboard riff here: We Don’t Need Another Hero – Guitar Lesson with TAB.
Bridge
The bridge has some unusual timing. Over six bars, the C#m chord takes up eight beats, but it starts halfway through bar 2 — a strange placement. I nearly added two 2/4 bars before realising it works better as follows:
| E | F# C#madd9 | C#madd9 |
| C#madd9 E | E F# | C#madd9 |
When we play the bridge again, there’s an extra bar of C#m at the end.
Chorus
The chorus is equally unusual, starting on beat 2 — just like Miley Cyrus’ Flowers did almost 40 years later.
We move through this progression: V – I/3 – V – IV – V, which is a unique pattern. It looks like this:
| F# E/G# F# | E F# |
Middle 8
Lastly, the middle 8 changes the key down a tone to A, and follows this pattern:
| A (I) | F# (VIx) | A (I) | C#m (VI) |
| D (IV) | E (V) | D | E N.C |
Here’s the chord chart I created for you.
We Don’t Need Another Hero Chord Chart | PDF + iReal Pro Download
It took me all day to work out all the chords and create a chart that would fit Tina Turner‘s We Don’t Need Another Hero‘s chords onto one page.
Should you want to download my chord chart, here’s a PDF: We Don’t Need Another Hero chord chart PDF.
This chart was created using iRealPro. Here’s a link to that file: We Don’t Need Another Hero iReal Pro. Using this and the iRealPro app, you can change the key.
We Don’t Need Another Hero TAB | Course Preview
In the course, you get TAB for all sections of We Don’t Need Another Hero. Here’s a preview — the chorus.
Did Tina Turner’s Songwriters Recycle a Winning Formula?
There’s a striking similarity between We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome) and What’s Love Got to Do With It.
It’s almost as though they’re two versions of the same song, or at the very least, they seem to have emerged from the same writing session.
Released a year apart, both songs were written by the same songwriting duo, Graham Lyle and Terry Britten. These tracks also happen to be the biggest hits they’ve had, both together and individually.
We Don’t Need Another Hero wasn’t part of an album but instead featured on the soundtrack for Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (Mel Gibson, 1985).
I guess when you find a winning formula, you stick with it!
We Don’t Need Another Hero Chords: Continue Learning
Want to master this song? Check out the full TAB lesson here: We Don’t Need Another Hero (Tina Turner) Guitar Lesson with TAB.
Alternatively, here are five similar tunes you might enjoy:
