JUKEBOX: “Colors Of the Wind” by Judy Kuhn

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.