Disney's Pocahontas

And award-winning "Colors of the Wind" lyrics by Stephen Schwartz

• 10th Anniversary DVD with new Featurettes
• Recordings - soundtrack album, cover songs, karaoke
• Sheet Music
• Book reveals history of Pocahontas Film Score
• Online resources
• Lyrics for "Colors of the Wind"
• Three Wolf Moon tshirt

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DVD

10th Anniversary Edition of Pocahontas

This amazing new 2-disc DVD includes many special features including:

Winner of two Academy Awards for Best Song (Colors of the Wind) and Best Original Score. Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. Music by Alan Menken.

Recordings

Music CDs

Pocahontas

(Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz), Disney, 1995. Pocahontas sound track

 

• Songs on the compact disk (not including the instrumentals): The Virginia Company, Steady as the Beating Drum, Just Around the Riverbend, Listen with Your Heart, Colors of the Wind, Savages, If I Never Knew You

Pocahontas Karaoke

Disney Karaoke series - Princess - "Colors of the Wind" and "Just Around the Riverbend"

OR Pocahontas Karaoke - [new browser window]

 

Pocahontas Songs Covered on other CDs:

"Colors of the Wind"

• Michael Crawford - The Disney Album - (UNI/Disney 2001)
  Michael Crawford's The Disney Album. [new browser window]
• Judy Kuhn - Classic Disney, Volume 3 - (Walt Disney Records, 1996)
• Michelle Nicastro - Tuneful, Too - (Varese Sarabande, 1995)
• Jane Olivor- Love Decides - (Varese Sarabande, 1982) "Colors of the Wind" on Love Decides
• Pam Tillis - The Best of Country Sings the Best of Disney - (Walk Disney Records, 1996)
• Sara Ramirez -
  The Stephen Schwartz Album - (Varese Sarabande, 1999)
• Vanessa Williams - Disney's Greatest Pop Hits - (Walt Disney Records, 1998)

"If I Never Knew You"

• John Barr - In Whatever Time We Have - (Dress Circle, 1998)
• Michael Crawford - The Disney Album - (UNI/Disney, 2001)
  Michael Crawford's The Disney Album. [new browser window]
• Hal Ketchum and Shelby Lynne - The Best of Country Sings the Best of Disney (Walt Disney Records, 1996)
• Jon Secada and Shanice - Disney's Greatest Pop Hits - (Walt Disney Records, 1998)
• Angela DeCicco and Bill Whitefield - Our Heart Sings (Jerome Records, 2000)

"Just Around the Riverbend"

• Christiane Noll -
  The Stephen Schwartz Album - (Varese Sarabande, 1999)
• Michelle Nicastro - Tuneful, Too - (Varese Sarabande, 1995)

"Mine, Mine, Mine"

• David Ogden Shiers and Mel Gibson - Classic Disney, Volume 3 - (Walt Disney Records, 1996)

Sheet Music 

"Colors of the Wind"- Press here for over a hundred possible selections This award-winning number is available in various solo and choral arrangements.

Pocahontas (Piano/Vocal/Guitar Artist Songbook) 11 songs from the soundtrack of the Disney hit. Includes: Colors of the Wind · If I Never Knew You · Just Around the Riverbend · Listen with Your Heart · Mine, Mine, Mine · Savages, Parts 1 & 2 · Steady as the Beating Drum (& Reprise) · and The Virginia Company (& Reprise). Also features beautiful, full-color artwork. (Hal Leonard Corporation)

"Colors of the Wind," "If I Never Knew You," and other Disney classics in Alan Menken Songbook [new browser window]

Attention choir directors or choir members: Visit our Choral Music from Stephen Schwartz Musicals page for more options.

"If I Never Knew You" - 48 different sources

Stephen Schwartz biography Chronicles Pocahontas' Development Story

Author Carol de Giere's new Stephen Schwartz biography Defying Gravity: The Creative Career of Stephen Schwartz from Godspell to Wicked explores the genesis of Pocahontas, focusing on the score, and tells behind-the-scenes stories for the writing of "Colors of the Wind," "Just Around the Riverbend," and other songs. Reading about Pocahontas' history adds a layer of meaning to viewing of the movie. Read more at Defying Gravity: 2nd edition details

Pocahontas Q and A with Stephen Schwartz

Question sent to Mr. Schwartz: I have always loved the music in [Disney's] Pocahontas and find the lyrics to all the songs to be beautiful and meaningful. I appreciate the many messages in each of the songs. But something's been bugging me all day that I have never really thought about until now. What exactly does "paint with all the colors of the wind" mean? I think when I was a child I understood what it meant, but I've either forgotten or never really knew what it meant at all. Could you please explain it to me as I'm sure to lose sleep over this -- I have many theories. [Note- Stephen Schwartz wrote the lyrics for this Oscar-winning song from Pocahontas.]

Answer from Stephen Schwartz: It's interesting to me that you think you understood what "paint with all the colors of the wind" meant when you were a child, but now, with an adult logic, you're not sure you get it any longer. In a way, that's the exact point of the song and the phrase, which is a metaphor (as is its preceding phrase, "sing with all the voices of the mountain".) Both those phrases describe actions that are impossible on the surface. But they are meant to imply a Native American way of looking at the world -- a pre-conscious and unconscious affinity with nature and the world around us, both tangible and intangible, that tends to be lost by more "civilized," "adult" cultures. One need only look at the current state of our environment (not to mention our society) to appreciate that perhaps there was a wisdom we might do well to attempt to regain. In any event, the only way to understand a phrase like "paint with all the colors of the wind" is to approach it from a visceral and intuitive point of view, in fact, more like a child.

You might want to take a look at the Chief Seattle letter to Congress which inspired the song (which you should be able to Google, I would think), to see what sort of ideas I was trying to convey in the lyrics.

I hope this explanation means you won't be losing sleep over this -- there are surely more important things going on these days more worth losing sleep over. But of course I thank you very much for your interest and for taking the time to write.

Thanks and best wishes, Stephen Schwartz

Online Resources

Read about the lyricist Stephen Schwartz

Info on the film
http://www.movieweb.com/movie/pocahontas/pocprod1.txt

Bibliography of magazine articles. http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/pocahontas.html

"Colors of the Wind" Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz

"Colors of the Wind"

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 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

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.

Copyright Wonderland Music Co. (BMI)
Walt Disney Company (ASCAP)

Colors of the Wind Parody - Three Wolf Moon tshirt

Have you seen the YouTube Three Wolf Moon tshirt spin off of Colors of the Wind? When a videomaking company created the tshirt promoting rendition of the song for Youtube, the tshirt became a best seller on Amazon.com.

Get your Three Wolf Moon T-Shirt, Available in Various Sizes or see the parody: Youtube video