Watson and the Shark

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