michael hagerty said:Well, that song's easy. A guy in Vietnam dreaming of his hometown in Texas and the girl he left behind.boiseengineer said:"I clean my gun and dream of Galveston
I still see her standing by the water..."
The Spanish American War, actually. One of the 1960's most prolific songwriters, Jimmy Webb (MacArthur Park, By The Time I Get To Phoenix), wrote this number while imagining what might be going on in the mind of the proverbial soldier, over the girl he left behind during that 19th century conflict. Reportedly inspiring him was the vision of a lovely girl he observed on the beach at Galveston, where he penned Galveston.
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=2750