Lyrics That Changed My Life - A look at "Don't drink the water"
Don’t Drink The Water
Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds
This is one of my all time favorite songs - by one of my favorite bands - The Dave Matthews Band.
I love their live shows because each time the songs are performed a little different. I can tell which concert it is by the version of the song.
For me, one of the best parts about music is how there is such diversity and personality even within the same song.
This version of Don’t Drink the Water is done in company with Tim Reynolds and it’s live at the Radio City Music Hall. This time around Dave adds in a chipping of This Land Is Your Land and I find it so beautifully ironic and tainted when matched up with the lyrics to this epic song.
Now, I have no idea the true story behind this song. I do not know in what context it was originally written, however I have personally always been reminded of European Expansion and the taking of the Americas.
If I knew how to create my own video to this I would but for now I’ll smash together some beautiful artwork with some of the lyrics to give everyone an idea of what I think of while listening to this song.
Come out, come out - no use in hiding. Come now, come now - can you not see?
There’s no place here what were you expecting? Not room for both, just room for me.
Say you will lay your arms down. Yes I will call this home.
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Away, away. You have been banished. Your land is gone and given to me.
And here I will spread my wings - Yes I will call this home.
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What’s this you say? You feel the right to remain, then stay. I will bury you.
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What’s this you say? Your father’s spirit still lives in this place? Well I will silence you.
Here’s the hitch, your horse is leaving. Don’t miss your boat - it’s leaving now.
Unless you go I will spread my wings. Yes I will call this home.
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I have no time to justify to you, fool - you’re blind, move aside for me.
And all I can say to you my new neighbor is you must move on or I will bury you.
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this land is your land - this land is my land
From California to the New York Islands
From the Red Wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made...
Now build Heaven and call it Home.
I live with my justice and I live with my greed and need, and live with no mercy and I live with my friends at feet. And I live with my hatred, and I live with my jealousy. Oh I live with the notion I don’t need anyone but me...
Don’t drink the water.
Don't drink the water.
The title don’t drink the water is a warning to us all. Don't drink the koolaide - don’t jump right into self-righteous dominance and don't believe that you're better than anyone else.
This standard of judging those who are different from ourselves is the most detrimental condition in all of history. Was there ever a time or place where some group was not in power over others? A variety of motives have come into play but there is always a race, religion or creed that believes themselves to be above all others.
Why do humans have this need to come out on top? Be the best or the chosen people? Prove their faction is the strongest, most worthy to rule?
I must be missing something because this kind of competition never resonated with me. I believe people are all valuable in their own distinct way - just like I am.
The lyrics to this song have always struck a heart-chord of mine. I look at the atrocities of history, still taking place today and I see so many drinking the water. I see so many eyes scrutinizing others - whispering those last lines, I live with the notion that I don’t need anyone but me.
Don't Drink the Water
We all need compassion. We are born here with no more reason than any other soul. No matter what you learn there are some things no one can answer with any more accuracy than any other human - Like why we are here or whether the universe is eternal or finite or how time works. How about what consciousness is? Who can answer these question with any degree of certainty? We are all under the same spell of this world so how can any one claim ultimate superiority?
No one can. Don't drink the water.
Does it seem to you that others are incapable? Then they will also determine you are incapable. That is the cycle.
Offer trust instead and see how the cycle changes.
This is beautifully written and props to your additional narration. Very passionate indeed and the images you have used are perfect! (The moment I saw the pic of the Eagle my heart sank). I think me and you have a very similar mindset. I assume you are from the US as you have referred to the destruction of the native people of the Americas. I am from Nottingham in England and Our history is burdened with the guilt of empire building. I have done much reading about how we have destroyed the Aboriginals of Australia and it truly breaks my heart to see them treated no different today. The world can be an evil place and we have a lot to make up for. I love this peom/story and it reminds me of something I have just read. I think you are going to like this quote ;)
"There are certain things that our age needs and certain things that it should avoid.
It needs compassion and a wish that mankind will be happy;
It need the desire for knowledge and the determination to eschew pleasant myths;
It needs, above all, courageous hope and the impulse for creativeness.
The things that it must avoid, and that has brought it to the brink of catastrophe, are cruelty, envy and greed, competitiveness, search for irrational subjective certainty, and what the Freudians call, 'the death -wish'.
The root of the matter is a very simple and old-fashioned thing, a thing so simple that I am almost ashamed to mention it, for fear of the derisive smile with which wise cynics will greet my words.
The thing I mean.... is love, Christian love or compassion.
If you feel this, you have a motive for existence, a guide in action, a reason for courage, an imperative necessity for intellectual honesty.
If you feel this, you have all that anyone should need in the way of religion.
Although you may not find happiness, you will never know the deep despair of those whose life is aimless and void of purpose; for there is always something you can do to diminish the awful sum of human misery"
Written by Bertrand Russel.
Here is the post I wrote about Bertrand and it has some good links to his work
i believe I have seen that same bloodlines documentary on youtube - I recall that book. That other post is very good! I'm going to dive into that link over there about his predictions :) thanks for that!
And thank you for the awesome comment! I do love that entire quote and I think you grasped the meaning behind my post very well. I was certainly using the American Native American as a reference point but you're very right it has happened on every continent at many different times and definitely still going on today. I feel your pain with the weight of European Expansion.. I know I personally had no part and didn't live through it but I still feel responsible for my ancestors actions. I mean I'm mostly Irish and Scottish so they've had their fair share of adversity but I'm partially English and well... lol speaks for itself but just being Caucasian is a trigger enough for some people.. unfortunately.
I was hoping the pictures would bring some real emotion to it and luckily I found perfect matches to the vision I had - so I'm very happy with the outcome :)
It's a very impressive post so you should be very happy with it. I have given it a mention in my latest post as I liked it so much.
Wow you have some heritage there! But you are not in the UK? lol being white is the new black apparently. Shame they don't remember the history of the Irish...Never been about colour.
Its about power and control that is facilitated by creating massive wealth. I love the way you have seen past the outer layer of that aspect of imperialism.
People seem to have to go through this kind of level change. I lost a lot of friend at Level 1 lol.
Level 1 = racism(Including racism against Whites)
Level 2 Social status
Level 3 = Money
Level 4 = Control & Power (The tell-tale sign of this is Child-Abuse and that is almost a right of passage in the higher circles of society)
Nice to find another Level 4 lol.
thank you so much! I never thought of levels in that way but wow - I lost a lot of friends at level 1 too 😂 I'm glad to have met anoth level 4 too! Not many people get it lol happy you do! 🙏✌😊
Holy crap, the intro sounds just like my music! I never thought I liked Dave Matthews, but this is solid!
ohhh welcome to the world of dave matthews! For a while I thought I didn't like them.. the radio stuff is not so much my favorite type of music. However, don't let the poptastic tracks detour you because he's got some gold hiding ;-) especially his performances with Tim Reynolds.. they always blow me away. He does some covers too that I lean towards more than the originals LOL
Again blown away by your writing
it's just a damn shame that youtube censorship damadeg your work a little
An error occurred.
Try watching this video on www.youtube.com
anyone else have the same issue, or did google single me out again?
oh man! I don't know.. I haven't had an issue watching it but maybe others have? It really is a great song maybe try searching it on your own on youtube like type in radio city don't drink the water and see if it comes up? maybe it's the link? or the embed file I used? I have no idea! just throwing ideas out there
yes i found the song. great song!
just extremely annoyed by google and the copyright bullshit damaging your work.
oh good! It is a great song! ... me too that is so aggravating. It seems to do that to me a lot when I post videos. I wonder if I don't embed it if it would make a difference?