Songfacts®:

• Written by Ritchie Blackmore, Ian Gillan and Roger Glover, "The Spanish Archer" runs to 5 minutes 31 seconds and is Track 7 on the 1987 album The House Of Blue Light. According to the band's biographer Michael Heatley, Gillan didn't want the song to be included on the album because it wasn't properly arranged and was just a series of verses with jamming in between. Jon Lord said it was "Ritchie at his finest," the saving grace of the track, and indeed it is hard to disagree. Whatever the lyrical content, "The Spanish Archer" contains some fine work from one of rock's legendary guitarists. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Alexander Baron - London, England
• The identity of the Spanish Archer is in question, but the song is clearly about a relationship that coming to a bitter end:
  
  Is there someone somewhere waiting in the wings to take my place?
  Let's not drag it out like a Cagney death scene
  
  The Cagney death scene refers to the 1938 movie Angels With Dirty Faces, where Cagney's character gets the electric chair.