Verse 1
He was seven that first summer,
When I took him down the stream,
With a little rod beside him
And a head so full of dreams.
Early sunlight through the willow,
Silver dancing everywhere,
And the mist above the water
Made a kind of magic there.
Verse 2
We would free-line by the shallows,
Where the quieter water ran,
He would watch that line so closely,
With the patience of a man.
Then a sudden pull beneath us,
And his little reel would sing,
And I’d watch his face light up
At the wonder on the string.
Chorus
Oh, the magic of the water,
When you’re only seven years,
Every ripple holds a secret,
Every movement disappears.
There were pike beneath the shadows,
Barbel waiting by the weir,
And the whole wide world was opening
For my little boy that year.
Verse 3
I remember one bright morning,
Summer warming up the day,
He had landed something special,
Wouldn’t put the thing away.
“Hold it steady for the camera,”
I can almost see him now,
Seven years old, holding treasure,
With the proudest little smile.
Verse 4
But the fishing wasn’t everything,
Though we didn’t know it then,
There were kingfishers and mayflies,
Water voles along the bend.
There were footprints in the muddy bank,
There were buzzards riding high,
And a boy began to understand
There was life in everything nearby.
Chorus
Oh, the magic of the water,
When you’re only seven years,
Every ripple holds a secret,
Every movement disappears.
There were pike beneath the shadows,
Barbel waiting by the weir,
And the whole wide world was opening
For my little boy that year.
Verse 5
Years went by like running water,
Seven somehow turned to ten,
Then the little hands I guided
Didn’t need my hands again.
But he never lost the wonder,
Never left those banks behind,
For the river taught him something
That had settled in his mind.
Bridge
Now he teaches other people
What those mornings taught him,
How to care for every creature,
Every bank and every swim.
And his voice within the angling world
Is something people hear—
But I still see that little boy
Standing proudly by the weir.
Final Verse
He is forty-five now,
And the years have travelled fast,
But sometimes in the early light
I wander through the past.
And I’m standing there beside him,
Summer sunlight breaking through,
Thinking I was teaching fishing—
But the river taught him too.
Final Chorus
Oh, the magic of the water,
And the things a father sees,
A little boy discovering
What lives beneath the trees.
There were pike beneath the shadows,
Barbel waiting by the weir,
And the man that he would grow to be
Was somehow starting there.
Outro
One rod.
One river.
Morning breaking clear.
A father
And his little boy
Beside the weir.
Lyrics Michael Forty
Voice Michael Forty