"Colors of the Wind", by composer Alan Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz, was the 1995 Oscar-winner for Best Original Song from the Disney 1995 animated feature film Pocahontas. It also won the Golden Globe in the same category as well as the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Movie. It was also nominated for AFI's 100 years...100 songs, as one of 15 songs from Disney and one of 17 songs from an animated movie to be nominated. The songs that eventually made the cut were: "When You Wish Upon a Star" (#7), "Someday My Prince Will Come" (#19), "Wind Beneath My Wings" (#44), "Beauty and the Beast" (#62), "The Rainbow Connection" (#74), and "Hakuna Matata" (#99).
The song poetically represents the Native American viewpoint that the earth is a living entity where humankind is connected to everything in nature. This song is about Pocahontas' exhortation to John Smith about the wonders of the earth and nature, including the spirit within all living things, encouraging him not to think of them as things he can conquer or own, but rather as beings to respect and live with in harmony. She also urges him to accept humans who are different in appearance and culture and to learn from them.
The whole song's music plays in the theatrical trailer, as shown on The Lion King video, but she only is heard singing the song starting from, "You think you own whatever land you land on."
It can be heard briefly in Ralph Breaks the Internet when Pocahontas uses the power of the wind to help save Ralph.
Composition[]
The song is set in two distinct keys, F major for the first part, and D major for the second part. This means the first part is in B flat, and the second has two sharps, F and C.
It is fairly slow, and has an emphasis on wind instruments - both woodwind and brass - as well as stringed instruments.
Melody[]
The first two notes of Alan Menken's melody span a musical interval of a major sixth. Overall, the span of the melody reaches an eleventh. Because the melody spans a slightly larger range than some instruments, such as the Native American flute, can reach, alternate versions of the melody have been arranged that span a more modest interval. Described as a "stirring anthem to animism", this song is Pocahontas' exhortation to Captain John Smith about the wonders of the earth and nature, including the spirit within all living things, encouraging him not to think of them as things he can conquer or own, but rather as beings to respect and live with in harmony. She also urges him to accept humans who are different in appearance and culture and to learn from them.
There is some debate over where the song begins within the narrative of the movie. The first part is sung, when the music technically begins, has Pocahontas talking about how having experience with other races does not necessarily mean understanding them and has her asking John Smith whether she is the savage between the two of them. As she sings this, she angrily shoves his gun into his hands, implying that the European attitude towards guns, violence, and racism is far more savage than the views that the Native Americans have. Pocahontas then tells John Smith that there is a lot about the Earth he doesn't know. At this point, it is considered that the song actually begins. The first line of the chorus tells of the wolf crying to the "blue corn moon", with the second line varying with the verse context. The phrase "blue corn moon" has no actual meaning in Native American folklore. It was made up by lyricist Stephen Schwartz because he enjoyed the sound of it, being inspired by a Native American love poem that read "I will come to you in the moon of green corn". The second time the chorus is sung in the single version, the second line becomes "Or let the eagle tell you where he's been" from the original "Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned," likely because the latter phrase refers to imagery in the movie of a fictitious constellation which resembles a bobcat. The third line tells of singing with the voices of the mountains, as the fourth line concludes with the title imagery of painting with the colors of the wind.
Lyrics[]
You think I'm an ignorant savage
And you've been so many places
I guess it must be so
But still I cannot see
If the savage one is me
How can there be so much that you don't know?
You don't know...
You think you own whatever land you land on
The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim
But I know every rock and tree and creature
Has a life, has a spirit, has a name
You think the only people who are people
are the people who look and think like you
But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger,
you'll learn things you never knew you never knew
Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned?
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountain?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest
Come taste the sunsweet berries of the Earth
Come roll in all the riches all around you
And for once, never wonder what they're worth
The rainstorm and the river are my brothers
The heron and the otter are my friends
And we are all connected to each other
in a circle, in a hoop that never ends
How high does the sycamore grow?
If you cut it down, then you'll never know
And you'll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
For whether we are white or copper skinned
We need to sing with all the voices of the mountain
We need to paint with all the colors of the wind
You can own the Earth and still
all you'll own is earth until
you can paint with all the colors of the wind
You come from a land full of wonders
And you say what we have here
You improved on long ago
You'll teach us how to live
But what lessons will you give?
When it seems there is so much that you don't know
You don't know...
You think you own whatever land you land on
The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim
But I know every rock and tree and creature
has a life, has a spirit, has a name
You think the only people who are people
are the people who look and think like you
But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger,
you'll learn things you never knew you never knew
Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned?
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest
Come taste the sunsweet berries of the Earth
Come roll in all the riches all around you
And for once, never wonder what they're worth
The rainstorm and the river are my brothers
The heron and the otter are my friends
And we are all connected to each other
in a circle, in a hoop that never ends
Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
Or let the eagle tell you where he's been?
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountain?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
How high does the sycamore grow?
If you cut it down, then you'll never know
And you'll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
For whether we are white or copper skinned
We need to sing with all the voices of the mountain
We need to paint with all the colors of the wind
You can own the Earth and still
all you'll own is earth until
you can paint with all the colors of the wind.
Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest
Come taste the sunsweet berries of the Earth (Hega hega)
Come roll in all the riches all around you
And for once, never wonder what they're worth
The rainstorm and the river are my brothers
The heron and the otter are my friends
And we are all connected to each other
in a circle, in a hoop that never ends
Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned?
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
How high does the sycamore grow?
If you cut it down, then you'll never know
And you'll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
For whether we are white or copper skinned
We need to sing with all the voices of the mountains
We need to paint with all the colors of the wind
You can own the Earth and still
all you'll own is earth until
you can paint with all the colors of the wind
Videos[]
Cover versions[]
- Vanessa Hudgens on Disneymania 5 and Princess Disneymania
- Ashanti (feat. Lil' Sis Shi Shi) on Disneymania and Disneyremixmania
- Michael Crawford on The Disney Album
- Christy Carlson Romano on Disneymania 3
- Pam Tillis on The Best of Country Sing the Best of Disney
- Brian Wilson covered "Colors of the Wind" on his album In the Key of Disney, which was released on October 25, 2011.
- La Década in "La Década: DisneyManÃa"
- Tori Kelly on Mickey's 90th Spectacular
- Tokio Hotel on A Whole New Sound
Trivia[]
- This was the first song Menken and Schwartz had composed together as a duo.
Charts[]
External links[]
v - e - d  | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|