Song Lyrics

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 ev'ry 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
And you'll own is earth until
You can paint with all the colors of the wind

Alan Menken, Stephen Laurence Schwartz