Songfacts®:

• This song is about people who lead a monotonous life, doing the same things the same way, day after day. They never take risks and are content living this way until they die. Matthews compares these people to ants who perform the same daily tasks over and over.
  
  The theme is one that suits the band, who pride themselves on never playing a song the same way twice and varying their setlists so every show is an adventure.
• The last line in the second verse provided the album title:
  
  He forgets them
  And remembers being small
  Playing under the table and dreaming
• One of the most venerable DMB songs, the band started performing an early version of "Ants Marching" soon after they formed in 1991. Originally, it was known as "No New Directions."
  
  The song quickly became a crowd favorite, and when the band issued their first album, the 1993 independent release Remember Two Things, they included a live version as the first track. A studio version was released on their major-label debut, Under The Table And Dreaming, in 1994.
• Dave Matthews is the sole composer on this track, but it's one that shows off the band very well, lending itself to their legendary live shows where they improvise on the song. Matthews refers to "Ants Marching" as their "anthem."
• In 1995, Matthews started letting the crowd sing the line, "People in every direction."
• Dave Matthews Band were perfectly content without a record label - their concerts were drawing more and more fans and their Remember Two Things album sold thousands of copies. So when RCA Records courted them, they were able to name their terms. In addition to favorable royalties, they didn't have to do the typical promotion and could keep performing as normal. But that normal changed pretty quickly when RCA started pushing songs from the Under The Table And Dreaming album to radio stations.
  
  None of the songs from the album were made available for sale as singles in America, but radio stations and MTV were encouraged to play them. The first promotional single was "What Would You Say," which got loads of airplay in 1995, especially on the East Coast. The band's sound wasn't typical pop, but was very listenable and appealed to a broad audience.
  
  "Ants Marching" was pushed to radio months later in an effort to keep the band from getting overplayed. The ploy worked, and in November 1995, the song reached its peak position of #21 on the Airplay chart - four years after they first started playing it live. Another song from the album, "Satellite," followed, peaking on the Airplay chart at #55 in March 1996.
  
  The bands concerts around this time were mostly filled with new fans but also populated by those who found out about them years earlier, perhaps on one of the many bootlegs that circulated (the band has always encouraged fans to record their shows) or at one of their many concerts from years earlier.
• On April 15, 1995, the band performed "Ants Marching" on Saturday Night Live when they appeared on the show for the first time. The host was Courteney Cox).
• The music video, directed by David Hogan ("What Would You Say"), was shot entirely in New York City. The image of the boy underneath a table was not only a nod to the song's lyrics, but was taken from Hogan's own childhood. "I remember hiding under the table and licking my finger and eating the sugar that was on top of the table," he explained in a Songfacts interview.
  
  Future Grey's Anatomy star Justin Chambers makes a cameo appearance in the video.
• This was used on The Office in the 2011 episode "Ultimatum." It was also featured on three episodes of Community in 2014: "Basic Intergluteal Numismatics," "Basic Story," and "Basic Sandwich."
• Since 2007, Rashawn Ross, the band's trumpeter, has interpolated "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)" by The Jacksons in most performances of the song.
• The version on the 1993 album Remember Two Things has about 30 snare hits before the rest of the instrumentation comes in. When they recorded the song for the Under The Table And Dreaming album, their producer was Steve Lillywhite, known for his work with U2.
  
  Since DMB was really a live band, the challenge for Lillywhite was capturing their sound in a studio setting. His approach was to just let them play as if they were on stage and wait until they got a good take. That was an issue when the band started the song with all those snare hits. Lillywhite got them to trim it down to three before bringing in the other instruments.
• When Dave Matthews Band were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2024, they opened their set with "Ants Marching." Unlike many bands whose later-stage members are excluded, all eight past and present members of the band, including latecomers Rashawn Ross (trumpet, joined in 2006) and Jeff Coffin (saxophone, joined in 2008). Guitarist Tim Reynolds didn't become an official member until 2008 but often performed and recorded with them since their formation. Violin player Boyd Tinsley, who left in 2018, didn't attend. Saxophone player LeRoi Moore, a founding member of the band, died in 2008.