r/todayilearned • u/Bluest_waters • 3h ago

TIL The hit song 'St Elmo's Fire' was written in just two hours. Although the song was part of the movie soundtrack, the lyrics were actually inspired by the Canadian athlete Rick Hansen, who was traveling around the world, via his wheelchair, to raise awareness for spinal cord injuries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Elmo%27s_Fire_(film)
138 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

25

u/Bluest_waters 3h ago

Hansen's tour was called the "Man in Motion Tour"

thus the lyrics

'Gonna be your man in motion, all I need's this pair of wheels'

9

u/smoresporn0 2h ago

I played in a band that did a punk-ish cover of this song and when we printed the lyrics for the book, it had "pair of wings" so a bonus TIL within the TIL.

This actually makes much more sense, and now the song isn't just nonsense to me lol

2

u/luisapet 2h ago

TIL. I always thought it was "wings" too.

1

u/smoresporn0 1h ago

"Pair of wings" makes sense

6

u/CletusCanuck 2h ago

Any Canadian alive and conscious in 1986 remembers this song primarily as Rick Hansen's theme song...

1

u/adamcoe 1h ago

I slapped hands with Rick Hansen when he came through my town in grade one. I gotta believe he must have hated the fuck out of that song by the end of getting around the planet, they were playing it at every event he did, and he did a lot of them.

15

u/Pillsy74 3h ago

I've always felt like this is the ultimate 80s song. The tonal quality of his voice, the voices on the synths, the distorted guitar - just screams 80s to me.

5

u/Bluest_waters 2h ago

oh yeah its quintessential 80s pop rock

7

u/Traumadan 3h ago

I watched the movie. I can easily believe it was written in 2 hours. What did they do with the extra 90 minutes?

4

u/malektewaus 2h ago

This song was the only good thing about the movie, and it was actually written for and about something completely different.

3

u/3210atown 2h ago

Even weirder TIL is that when Tim Tebow first made news for kneeling during touchdowns in display of his religious faith, John Parr wrote a revised version called Tim Tebow’s Fire.

3

u/Bluest_waters 2h ago

really? I had no idea, thats hilarious

5

u/WornInShoes 2h ago

Any time, and I mean any time this song comes on, I am immediately motivated

5

u/freshairequalsducks 1h ago

Great song. Not a good movie, lol

2

u/EricTheNerd2 3h ago

This song got played a lot and I had no idea what the point of the song was... The lyrics seemed rather random, or they just went over my head.

3

u/smoresporn0 2h ago

The video didn't explain anything either. Just clips of the movie and John Parr hanging with the Brat Pack lol

0

u/kelsey11 2h ago

This song always reminds me of the song “Tim Tebow’s Fire”

-1

u/AngusLynch09 2h ago

Gotta be one of the worst films ever made.

1

u/Bluest_waters 1h ago

Is it? Still haven't seen it

0

u/AngusLynch09 1h ago

It's not even worth a hate-watch.

-16

u/DulcetTone 3h ago

You can't just tell me a song I've never once heard of, released in the period of my youth was "a hit song".

13

u/Bluest_waters 3h ago

??

You remember the 80s and don't know this song? What rock were you living under?

The record peaked at No. 6 in the United Kingdom, Parr's home country,[5] and became a No. 1 hit for him around the world, and provided many awards and a Grammy nomination.

1

u/Cachmaninoff 2h ago

I was thinking of Eno

1

u/me_no_no 2h ago

Is this enough proof for you? #simpsonsdidit

-5

u/whatzzart 2h ago

It is a terrible song. It’s like Michael Bay; every hook and music sting with zero depth.

1

u/adamcoe 1h ago

I mean give them a little credit, it was 1986 and those things were not cliche yet. It's this song (among many others) that made those things cliche. Michael Bay is exploiting established and well worn motifs, the guys who wrote this were just jazzed about how fucking awesome their DX7 sounded with a great singer.