“Don’t Drink the Water” by Dave Matthews Band
“Don’t Drink the Water” strongly divulges the story of Europeans who discover the Americas and decide to forcibly root the natives out to gain ownership without an ounce of respect.
The song’s narrator tells the story of how invaders force the natives to simply give up their own land so they can build their own home. They threaten to kill the natives if they decide to fight for what rightfully belongs to them.
And the sad thing is that the antagonistic invaders in this song are fully aware that what they are doing is wrong. However, they forge on with their unimaginable atrocities, motivated by one objective. And said objective is their selfish ambition to possess the land and build their own home at the expense of the natives.
Meaning of “Don’t Drink the Water”
After achieving success by driving out the natives or probably killing them as is depicted in the verses, the antagonists are apparently not even remorseful for this horrendous evil action. They seem to live just fine with themselves.
At the end of the song, the narrator warns his listeners not to drink the water from this land (America). And why? Because it is contaminated or rather made impure with blood of the innocent.
“There’s blood in the water
Don’t drink the water”
Conclusion
“Don’t Drink the Water” strongly criticizes and condemns Whites for coming to America and using violence to take over the lands of Native Americans. The Native Americans (also known as American Indians) were the real and original inhabitants of America. So to a significant degree, this can be classified as a protest song.
Facts about “Don’t Drink the Water”
Dave Matthews exclusively wrote both the lyrics and music whereas Steve Lillywhite handled the song’s entire production.
RCA Records released it in 1998. It was the first single that Dave Matthews Band released from their “Before These Crowded Streets” album. This album, which was the band’s third studio project, was a big hit as was its first single. For example, barely a week after the album’s release, it sold almost half a million units.
Two famous American musicians appear on this track. The first is renowned banjo player Béla Fleck. The second is singer and songwriter Alanis Morissette. Alanis is known for such global hits as “Hand in My Pocket” and “Uninvited“.
The song is a diatribe by Satan himself. The surface narrative is indeed about Native Americans or other indigenous peoples pushed off their land. Dig deeper though and the truth reveals itself. Key words here: hiding, can you not see, lay arms down (worshipping God with raised arms is spiritual warfare), Father’s Spirit, home-heaven, horse (natives didn’t have horses), boat (Noah’s ark), wings (Satan has wings), fire, fools blind, poor souls. Drink references believing or drinking in a teaching or doctrine . water, synonymous with God’s Word or Gospel message. Blood of Jesus Christ mingled withe the Gospel which infuses the message with it’s power. Satan pleads dont believe the Gospel because Christ’s Blood powers it to save men.
Wut
You’re a nut bag. Stop digging for your paranoid Christian agenda and leave the rest of Christianity to meaningful inference.
Well said!
Lawrence, while I do appreciate where your mind went, this is not at all what the song is referencing. Simply taking words out of context and making them have different meanings doesn’t change anything about the song. You simply constructed your own meaning using words from the song. Just like you might be able to take the words out of my reply and make the sentence: “Making out with Lawrence is simply not appreciated.” Is that anywhere close to what I just said?? LOL
Just to add, any seventh grader would figure out the song is about Native Americans but Dave ain’t singin’ to seventh graders.
Its about all people, native Americans didn’t really have boats, south Africans did though. Could be about them all. Even us now. “No room for both just room for me”. Typical left pushing an agenda. Theyre sick.
On the day of the feast Jesus cried out in loud voice “I any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink, and out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”
It’s literally an explanation of how Europeans came & decimated native peoples of the Americas…
Lawrence Ehrbar (the first responder, above) is a nutbag. He should keep his paranoid ideas to himself and leave the rest of Christianity to intelligent and thoughtful individuals who actually care about others.
I appreciate the author’s interpretation of the influence of European-Native American history, which is factual, and spot-on for what Dave Matthews actually wrote.
i’m literally only trying to get research for this school project and like wtfffff I did not see nothing really related to christians but okay everyone interprets things on their own
I agree with Lawrence
Metaphors and symbolism are from a fallen angel perspective
Dave is battling inner demons and giving lyrics to their words thru the song
Odd that Dave wouldn’t sing the same song about South Africa, where he’s from, where the Europeans were far more brutal to the locals. (not a slam in any way – just curious as to why he would hit his adopted country and not the country he chose to leave. ‘Course, I’ve been to South Africa, and a dozen other African countries. Many of them are not pretty places, and it has nothing to do with European colonialism. But that’s another discussion for another day).
Two main points, really:
– Broad-brushing European colonials as all bad guys is always a bad thing. (Even the curator of the Rwandan museum had enough sense to relay a nuanced understanding of the impact of colonials in his land when we went there in 2017)
– Likewise, broad-brushing American natives as peace-loving indigenous is equally inept.
a ) perhaps we forget that the pre-columbian population of what would be the US and Canada was less than the population of Dallas/Fort Worth today. You could literally walk for weeks across these fruited plains and never see a soul. So.. there’s a real question about who owned what. If no one claimed ownership of 1,000 acres here or there, could a European live there?
b ) the wars between the pre-columbian indigenous folks was no trival matter, and it spilled over to the early explorers. They recorded many battles that were *started* by brutal cannibals living in the land.
All of this to say — love the rhythm of the song (Stefan Lessard kills on the bass!). But the lyrics are shallow, and oddly curious, given Dave’s upbringing in SA.
Enjoy.
Oh my. Colonialism is bad and wrong. Enough with the apologism. Just like people saying that Hitler and Mussolini did some good things.
Add all the factors and the result is wildly negative without a chance for redemption. But there’s always someone who want to downplay the horrors.
And colonialism IS the reason why so many economies are just barely surviving.
What ego everyone has to assume he’s singing about America alone and not colonization in general. This isn’t Cortez the Killer, there’s nothing in DDTW that singles out America.