Dave Matthews Band: Don't Drink The Water Meaning

Song Released: 1998

Don't Drink The Water Lyrics

Come out, come out, no use in hiding.
Come out, come out, can you not see
There’s no place here, what were you expecting?
No room for both, just room for me.
So you will lay your arms down,
Yes, I will call this home.
Away, away, you have...

1. anonymous

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   Nov 17th 2009 !⃝

   Cherokee removal
2. agentdisciple19

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   May 25th 2009 !⃝

   When i hear this song i think of how dave is talking about not drinking the water of fame. I mean, not basically just fame, but how his talents and his ego can drive people away. I know on the surface he might be talking about the natives, but i think its much deeper than that.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
3. Misty328

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   Feb 8th 2009 !⃝

   The interpretation is simple........It's about the oppression of all people..........and also an anti war song.
4. jojo

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   Jun 16th 2008 !⃝

   I think it's wonderful that Dave wrote this powerful song with such meaning and passion, as he does with so many of his other songs. We should never forget where we came from and appreciate it, but at the same time we, shouldn't feel guilty, because we ourselves had no control over it. Learning history should help "us" to not make these sort of mistakes over and over again, but look where it's gotten the world so far, unfortunately. It is terrible what happened with the Indians, and kids should be taught the whole "true" story in school, but we also have to remember that not all the Indians were peaceful people either, fighting amongst the tribes, scalping each other. None of us should take others form granted and treat one another as we would like to be treated ourselves...thanks for reading.
5. anonymous

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   Apr 27th 2008 !⃝

   To add on to what I just said I think if you listen to the version from Radio City where in the middle of "Don't Drink the Water" he plays "This Land Is Your Land". I think he did this to show the irony of the two songs. It is ironic that he played those two together because DDTW is about the Native Americans forced off their land and "This Land Is Your Land" is about sharing all of America. I think if you listen to this version it will give you better understanding of the song. Keep in mind the theme of GREED!
6. anonymous

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   Apr 27th 2008 !⃝

   Well I certainly know this song has nothing to do with crickets. I also don't think DDTW is about apartheid in South Africa because he says he was on Lake Superior thinking of what it must have been like before our ancestors got here. He is referencing the Native Americans being forced off the land and even killed. But everyone has their own interpretations and opinions. No matter what you think the song is about it is very important to realize that the main theme in this son is GREED.
7. charlottepatterson83

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   Dec 14th 2007 !⃝

   The last interpretation is correct! I specifically heard him say it was about taking a trip to the Grand Canyon and while everyone around him was in awe of it's beauty- he was thinking about the Native Americans and tragedy the Europians caused when they displaced them from the land they had been on forever.
8. paja713

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   Sep 19th 2007 !⃝

   I agree with Gary, people don't sit down and say, "Wow, I feel really influenced by _____ to write a song, but I want to fill it with a bunch of metaphors that only make sense to me." When a musician is highly influenced by something they directly write about it, like Imagine. or else our dumb ass American society would think that Blood In The Water is about cricket infestations, or that Rock Lobster is about crack, or that Stairway to Heaven is about drug addiction or Jesus or Satan. If you look at words long enough its not hard to interpret them entirely different then how they were meant to be. If I were to say, "the whimsical pig jumped over the fence," some idiot is going to say, "hes talking about how Jesus was all knowing and knew that Judas would betray him." or one would say, "obviously the pig is a drug addict, that is wandering aimlessly in hopes of finding drugs."
9. gary2532

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   Jul 10th 2007 !⃝

   You have to understand that songwriters like Dave Matthews don't typically just sit down and say, "Now I'm going to write a song about _______." Usually it's one thing that spurs thought about another thing, and so on until it evolves into a song. It could be true that he had a bunch of crickets in his basement and got a basic idea and toyed around with it until he thought, "Hey that sounds like the situations in South Africa or the Native Americans." Then lines about blood in the water, living with greed, etc. accent the song to mold it into something greater than the original idea.
10. anonymous

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    Mar 27th 2007 !⃝

    This song is about Indians, South AMERICAN Indians, it's about horrible mistreatment of the Indians through out south america.
11. anonymous

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    Mar 12th 2007 !⃝

    In general it's about the segregation in africa between blacks and whites.
12. DarkNick

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    Jan 18th 2007 !⃝

    I'd love it if this was actually about the camel crickets! I laughed my rearend off when I read that. Everyone here knows this is Dave expressing his feelings about the American Indians and how thier situation sucked.
13. anonymous

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    Dec 19th 2006 !⃝

    Actually, It's not about the indians or the crickets it's about Africans. Dave is south african and he wrote it about things going on in Africa.
14. anonymous

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    Feb 15th 2006 !⃝

    Dude that's just straight up ignorance if you think that Don't Drink the Water is about crickets. Just listen to the words and it's so clear.
15. anonymous

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    Feb 15th 2006 !⃝

    Dude, you're an idiot. I'm sorry for saying that, but it's true. There have been TV programs before about how it's about the Indians: "Don't drink the water, there's blood in the water", that's definitely about crickets.

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