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Beautiful Colors of the Wind – From Pocahontas
The Colors of the Wind is a precious song from the movie Pocahontas. Even though the movie isn’t historically accurate, this song talks about harmony, preserving nature, and the appreciation for Native American Heritage. Finding harmony with others is a meaningful thing in today’s fighting and war ridden world.
This song starts with Pocahontas talking with John Smith about how Europeans thought that they owned everything in the 15th-16th Century because they thought they were more advanced. Pocahontas sings about finding harmony with nature and appreciating surroundings. And let’s be fair, the Indians did not live in arrangement that most people today would find acceptable, while the Europeans were trying to advance civilization. But this song promotes harmony and peace with nature – that is why it is so attractive to the ear.
Colors of the Wind: Song History
The song finds Pocahontas chastising Smith for his arrogance and ignorance, telling him that he doesn’t understand the wonders of nature. The line “Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?” is where she makes the point that even though he stakes his claim to the Earth, he doesn’t know how to nurture it.
The song makes reference to the Circle of Life in the lines, “We are all connected to each other in a circle, in a hoop that never ends.” The previous year, this was the theme of the Disney movie The Lion King.
The music was written by Alan Menken and the lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. Menken also wrote the music for “A Whole New World (Aladdin’s Theme).” Schwartz also wrote lyrics for songs in the Disney movies The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Enchanted.
In the movie, this was sung by Judy Kuhn, who was the singing voice of Pocahontas. The Vanessa Williams version played over the end credits and was released as the single.
This won the Oscar for Best Original Song, beating out “You’ve Got A Friend In Me” from Toy Story and “Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?” from Don Juan DeMarco. It also won the Golden Globe in that category and took home the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Movie.
“It really is one of the most important songs I’ve ever written,” Menken told Entertainment Weekly. “That was the first song I wrote with Stephen Schwartz – the Broadway prodigy who wrote Godspell and Pippin. He did a lot of research about American Indian folklore, and we listened to a lot of tribal music. It was born out of the modality of Native American music, but it quickly moved to its own place, which is hard to define.
The grand, slow elegance. It’s a very serious song, but there was no getting humor into Pocahontas. God knows we tried. We wrote a song for Grandmother Willow to try to add some comedy, but we just couldn’t. The only other option would have been to give a song to the pug and the raccoon, and they don’t even speak!”
Colors of the Wind: Lyrics
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 sun-sweet 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
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
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