A track from America's first album, "Sandman" was written by Dewey Bunnell, who also sang lead. The song was never released as a single, but got a lot of airplay on Album Oriented Rock (AOR) radio stations.
The three members of America - Bunnell, Gerry Beckley and Dan Peek - were sons of American military service members stationed in England. They formed the band while they were going to high school near London, and stayed in the area when they graduated in 1969 and got a record deal. This being the height of the Vietnam War, the trio would often encounter soldiers that had seen action and hear their war stories. Bunnell wrote this song based on some of those tales he heard, stories about how when stationed in Vietnam, they were afraid to sleep for fear of attack, so they would stay up as long as they could (sometimes with the help of various substances), since sleep could mean death. The "sandman" represents sleep, which they feared. Thus they were always "running from the sandman."
There is a widespread rumor that this song is about the US Navy's VQ-2 air squadron which was formerly based in Rota, Spain. It would stand to reason, since the members of America were all children of American servicemen. Rota, Spain's VQ-2 Naval base is the one known as "Gateway to the Mediterranean."
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