According to MAX MAGLIARO (
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The song is not, repeat, not about the Spanish-American War. That myth is littered all over the web. Some people also think it is about the Civil War.
But directly from an interview with songwriter Jimmy Webb, it is quite clear that he was primarily thinking about the Viet Nam War when he wrote it. To wit:
“A lot of people didn’t get the idea that there was anything in there about Vietnam at all,” he said. “I’ve had people come up to me and say, ‘is that song about the Civil War?’ And, the first couple of times, I guess my mouth must have fell so far open that I looked like the champion at a bass fishing tournament. It was like, ‘excuse me, Civil War? No, it wasn’t.’"
I suspect this Spanish-American War thing came about because of the one line about "cannons flashing." But in fact, if you look at modern-era guns firing shells, many of those emit a hefty muzzle flash when they go off.
He has discussed it in interviews many times. You can find them on YouTube.
It was not a "war protest" song per se. The idea was to portray what it's really like to go off to war. A young man marches off to do his patriotic duty, full of bravado and visions of glory. But once he's there, he realizes how much he has given up, how much he may never see. He is "afraid of dying", as the lyrics say, before he can return to comfort his weeping girlfriend.
Webb's own interviews attest to this, that it isn't exactly "anti war". It is more a song that is supposed to get you to realistically think about what war requires you to sacrifice, not just in Viet Nam, but anywhere.
But the SONGFACTS website (
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This was written by songwriter Jimmy Webb, who also wrote Campbell's hits "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" and "Wichita Lineman." Webb also wrote "MacArthur Park," which was a hit for both Richard Harris and Donna Summer, and "Up-Up and Away," which was recorded by The 5th Dimension.
When we spoke with Jimmy Webb in 2011, he said: "Glen was very, very good at commercializing my songs. He could come up with great intros and great solos, great breaks, and he wrote perfect strings, because he wrote very little. It was a minimalist approach and it just left Glen out there with the song and the guitar. I tended to write a little bit more as an arranger, and probably too much. So I could have done better to have stayed out of Glen's way, I think."
Galveston is a city on the coast of Texas that attracts lots of hurricanes. Webb was on a beach in Galveston when he wrote this. He made up the story about a soldier in the Spanish-American war and the girl he left behind. Most songwriters never find themselves in places like Galveston or Wichita, but Webb found inspiration in the people he encountered in these places.
The Vietnam War was going on when Campbell released this. It was considered an antiwar song.
The Hawaiian singer Don Ho was the first to record this song, releasing it as the B-side of his single "Has Anybody Lost A Love?" in 1968. Ho recalled that when he appeared on Campbell's show The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour in 1969, he gave Campbell a copy of the single and told him, "I didn't have any luck with this, maybe you will."
Little Richard, who speaks his mind and doesn't hand out praise lightly, said of this song: "When Glen Campbell says one word 'Galveston' - it shakes me up. It takes me, man, that's the whole soul of it right there."
This made the CMT Top Ten list of all-time great country music songs.