Synopsis

The video contrasts a theatrical band performance with documentary-style images from the Amazon. Dave Matthews sings from a chandelier while the band performs amid dark, swamp-like surroundings. Around them, footage of Indigenous people moving through the jungle reinforces the song's themes of invasion, displacement, and violent entitlement. The visual language turns the narrator's hostile claim to land into something grotesque and confrontational, ending with the poisoned-water image as a stark reminder of the destruction left behind by conquest.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video promoted "Don't Drink the Water," the first single from the Dave Matthews Band album Before These Crowded Streets, released in 1998.

• Production coverage described the clip as being shot largely in the Amazon, with additional footage made in the United States.

• Dave Matthews' performance was given an intentionally surreal centerpiece: he sings while swinging from a chandelier, an image that makes the song's threatening narrator appear both theatrical and unhinged.

• A later production recollection stated that the band could not travel for the Amazon material. A lifelike prosthetic head modeled on Matthews was reportedly used in jungle shots, where it was filmed with members of the Yanomami community.

• The video received 1998 MTV Video Music Award nominations for Best Rock Video and Best Cinematography.

• A making-of feature was included on The Videos 1994-2001, the band's 2001 VHS and DVD compilation.