My family's been ranching in California since the 1880s. In the old days there were cowboys drifting from ranch to ranch. Some would settle and stay for long periods. My grandfather came back from WWI with "Uncle Howard", who was 10 or 15 years older than my grandfather (ie born around 1875). He died in 1965 or so. I clearly remember good times with Uncle Howard, and I also remember my grandmother saying to my mother that Howard never had a drivers license or voted because he had been a bad man before he came West, and maybe the war had broken him of his evil ways. So when I first heard "Spanish Johnny" I thought of Uncle Howard and the other lonely men--and the people who lived with them. Anyway we are going to a family reunion and I wanted to have the lyrics so my cousin and my partner and I could sing this song.