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| Pocahontas singing "Colors of the Wind" |
Hi everybody! It’s Kimberly here for my eighth post for the genre “Children’s Music.”
“Have
you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon?” Well, I can’t say that I have and most of you
probably haven’t either, but I would bet that most of you have heard the song “Colors
of the Wind” from Disney’s 1995 movie
Pocahontas. “Colors of the Wind” is yet another one of
those iconic Disney songs that are relevant to the story it’s in, but is also
relevant to the world we live in today.
Like the song I reviewed last week (“I Won’t Say I’m in
Love,”), “Colors of the Wind” was also composed by Alan Menken. The lyricist for “Colors of the Wind” is
Stephen Schwartz. Stephen Schwartz also worked
on the lyrics for popular songs like “When You Believe” from Prince of Egypt and “True Love’s Kiss”
from Enchanted. This tag team combo are
what make “Colors of the Wind” shine as one of the most popular Disney songs of
all time.
Pocahontas has the difficult task of dealing with men who
want to take the land that she has grown to love from her tribe. When she is able to talk with one of these
men, John Smith, she seeks to explain to him how much the land means to
her. As typical Disney way, Pocahontas
does this through song. She starts off
strongly by asserting statements to John Smith like, “You think I’m an ignorant
savage/And you’ve been so many places I guess it must be so.” The rest of the song is mainly made up of
questions that are meant to make both John Smith and the audience think. I think the merits of “Colors of the Wind”
can be divided into three parts. For
one, a hallmark of a good melody for a song is if you can recognize the song
without its lyrics. Try humming “Colors
of the Wind” to a close friend of yours and it is very likely that they could
name that song. Secondly, the lyrics, as
I mentioned at the beginning of the review, make sense in the context of the
movie but also can serve as metaphors for real life. For instance, asking questions like “[Have
you] asked the bobcat why he grins.” Essentially what she’s saying is that if one
doesn’t ask about why people do what they do differently he or she cannot make
assumptions about those people. Lastly,
one of the cool things about this song is the instrumentals and sound effects
that give the song more of a nature feel.
For the second week in a row, I’m giving “Colors Of The Wind” 5 records
because the little nuances in lyrics and melody are interesting and seem to
stand the test of time.
Until next week, I’ll leave you with the following question:
“Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?” J
Below is the “Colors Of The Wind” scene from Pocahontas.
Here is a violin cover of “Colors of the Wind” performed by
Genevieve Salamone.
Rating: 5 RECORDS
Photo: Disney Princess
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