"Colors of the Wind" is a song written by lyricist Stephen Schwartz and composer Alan Menken for Walt Disney Pictures' 33rd animated feature film Pocahontas (1995). The film's theme song, "Colors of the Wind" was originally recorded by American singer and actress Judy Kuhn in her role as the singing voice of Pocahontas. American recording artist Vanessa Williams' cover of the song was released as the lead single from the film's soundtrack on March 23, 1995. A pop ballad, produced by Grammy Award winning producer Keith Thomas, the song's lyrics speak of respecting nature and living in harmony with the Earth's creatures.
"Colors of the Wind" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 68th Academy Awards in 1995, becoming composer Alan Menken's fourth win in the category. It also won the Golden Globe in the same category as well as the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for a Movie. The song poetically presents the Native American viewpoint that the earth is a living entity where humankind is connected to everything in nature.
Richard Percy Jones (February 25, 1927 – July 7, 2014), known as Dick Jones or Dickie Jones, was an American film and television actor who achieved success as a child performer and as a young adult, especially in B-Westerns. In 1938, he played Artimer "Artie" Peters, nephew of Buck Peters, in the Hopalong Cassidy film, The Frontiersman. He may be best known as the voice of Pinocchio in the 1940 Walt Disney film Pinocchio.
Richard Percy "Dickie" Jones was born on February 25, 1927 in Snyder, some ninety miles south of Lubbock, Texas. The son of a newspaper editor, Jones was a prodigious horseman from infancy, having been billed at the age of four as the "World's Youngest Trick Rider and Trick Roper". At the age of six, he was hired to perform riding and lariat tricks in the rodeo owned by western star Hoot Gibson, who convinced young Jones and his parents that he should come to Hollywood. Jones and his mother moved there, and Gibson arranged for some small parts for the boy, whose good looks, energy, and pleasant voice quickly landed him more and bigger parts, both in low-budget westerns as well as in more substantial productions.
Po-ca-hon-tas, or The Gentle Savage (subtitled "An Original Aboriginal Erratic Operatic Semi-civilized and Demi-savage Extravaganza") is a two-act musical burlesque by John Brougham. It debuted in 1855 and became an instant hit. Po-ca-hon-tas remained a staple of theatre troupes and blackface minstrel companies for the next 30 years, typically as an afterpiece.
The play parodies the Indian narratives that were popular at the time in the United States, particularly those featuring Indian heroines in the Noble Savage mould. The burlesque is usually credited with bringing the fad for Indian narratives to an end.
The plot very loosely follows events in the life of the historical Pocahontas. It begins with the arrival of white men led by John Smith, who says they are there to "ravage the land and steal gold". Smith and company raid the "Tuscarora Finishing School of Emancipated Maidens" and there meet Pocahontas. The remainder of the play revolves around the love triangle formed by Pocahontas, Smith, and John Rolfe, concluding with a card game between Smith and Rolfe for the hand of the Indian princess.
"Pocahontas" is a song written by Neil Young that was first released on his 1979 album Rust Never Sleeps. It was also covered by Johnny Cash, Everclear, Emily Loizeau, Crash Vegas and Gillian Welch.
Young originally recorded a version of "Pocahontas" in the mid-1970s for his planned but unreleased album Chrome Dreams. Young may have been inspired to write the song after reading Hart Crane's 1930 poem The Bridge, which Young read in London in 1971. The seventeenth-century Native American princess Pocahontas is a central character in The Bridge.
Commentators over the years have noted the song's similarity to Carole King's "He's a Bad Boy."
Rolling Stone Magazine contributing editor Rob Sheffield finds "Pocahontas" to be "an agonizingly lonely ballad." The themes of "Pocahontas" include passage of time, travel through space and companionship.Rolling Stone Magazine critic Paul Nelson claims that "Young sails through time and space like he owns them." The lyrics of "Pocahontas" primarily describe the massacre of an Indian tribe by European settlers. However, by the end of the song the lyrics have jumped to modern times, with a fictional meeting in the Astrodome between the narrator, Pocahontas and Indian rights activist actor Marlon Brando.
Pocahontas is a 1995 American animated epic musical romantic-drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The 33rd film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, the film is part of the era known as the Disney Renaissance which lasted from 1989 to 1999.
Directed by Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg, the film is inspired by the known history and folklore surrounding the Native American woman Pocahontas, and portrays a fictionalized account of her historical encounter with Englishman John Smith and the Jamestown settlers that arrived from the Virginia Company. The voice cast features Irene Bedard, Mel Gibson, David Ogden Stiers, Russell Means, Christian Bale, Billy Connolly, and Linda Hunt. The musical score was written by Alan Menken, with songs written by Menken and lyricist Stephen Schwartz.
Pocahontas was released on June 23, 1995 to a mixed reaction from critics, who praised the film for its animation and music, but criticized the film's story and historical inaccuracy. Nevertheless, the film was a commercial success, grossing $346 million at the worldwide box office. Pocahontas received two Academy Awards for its achievement in music: Best Original Score for Menken's score and Best Original Song for "Colors of the Wind". A video game based on the film was released across various platforms shortly after the film's theatrical release, and the film itself was followed by a direct-to-video sequel entitled Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World in 1998.
Let's go sell the radio.
Let's go sell the new t.v.
Let's go sell the stereo
Get enough for you and me.
You gotta jones so heavy when it hits this hard,
It's like a baseball bat to the head.
It's a never ending race.
Why don't we keep our own pace.
Maybe someday I'll get through to you.
Keepin' up with the Jones'.
Keep it up till the day you die,
You can go ahead and try.
Keepin' up with the Jones'.
You never get enough cause it's all you ever do.
Why don't you let the Jones' keep up with you.
Let's go steal the VCR.
Let's go steal a brand new car.
Let's go steal the satellite.
Let's all go get high tonight.
We got little black cases that we hide in places,
That they never seem to find 'till we're dead.
It's a never ending race.
Why don't we keep our own pace.
Maybe someday I'll get through to you.
Keepin' up with the Jones'.
Keep it up till the day you die,
You can go ahead and try.
Keepin' up with the Jones'.
Never get enough cause it's all you ever do.
Why don't you let the Jones' keep up with you.
Youuuuuuu. Yeah, Yeah
It's a never ending race.
Why don't you keep your own pace.
Maybe someday I'll get through to you.
Keepin' up with the Jones'
Keep it till the day you die.
You can go ahead and try.
Keepin' up with the Jones'.
Never get enough cause it's all you ever do.
Why don't you let the Jones' keep up with you.
Keep it up till the day you die.
You can go ahead and try.
Keepin' up with the Jones'.
Never get enough cause it's all you ever do.