Watson and the Shark - Walter Martin

The shark attacked Watson and the hero killed the shark

Down in Havana bay, down in Havana bay

Lucky Watson survived to tell the great tale

But he lost his leg, yeah the shark got his leg

A portrait painter, a Boston boy

Picked up a can of paint, and he told that story straight

John Singleton Copley

You got me hypnotized

John Singleton Copley

It’s music to my eyes, to my eyes

When I was a kid growing up in Washington D.C. my parents would often take me

and my brother and sister down to the National Gallery of Art for a stroll

through the galleries and a decent but overpriced lunch at the cafeteria.

Like most kids, I found the gallery stroll to be tedious — portraits of old

people, blurry water lilies, landscapes of places that looked boring,

and interior scenes that said nothing to me.

But there was one picture that I

loved.

In the late 18th century while across the ocean artists were busy

painting fancy ladies in their hats and dresses, a guy from Boston sat down and

made a really big, really realistic painting of a guy being attacked by a shark.

John Singleton Copley’s Watson and the Shark captured my heart,

excited my sense of adventure and gave me my first sweet taste of the magic of

art.

So I thank him for that.

This next and final verse is a little bit

unrelated but it’s about another Copley painting of a really weird looking

little boy holding his pet squirrel.

Hope you enjoy it

That little boy’s got a flying squirrel on a long gold chain

He’s got a squirrel on a chain

It’s an unusual toy for a little boy

But those were different days

Yeah, those were different days

John Singleton Copley

You got me hypnotized

John Singleton Copley

It’s music to my eyes, to my eyes

To my eyes, to my eyes, to my eyes