The official video from “Walk Like a Giant,” one of the remarkable songs from Psychedelic Pill, the new album by Neil Young and Crazy Horse, has just been released. In the song Young looks back at the heady days of his youth and acknowledges that his dreams have faded along with his vitality, yet defiantly refuses to give up on them:

“I used to walk like a giant on the land
Now I feel like a leaf on a stream
Me and some of my friends
we were gonna change the world
then the weather changed
Think about how close we came
When I think about how good it felt
I wanna walk like a giant on the land.”

I spoke with Crazy Horse guitarist Frank “Poncho” Sampedro about his upcoming gig with Neil Young and Crazy Horse at Voodoo Fest. “Walk Like A Giant” came up during our conversation:

“Walk Like A Giant” looks back on the idealism of the late ’60s and early ’70s. That expression of optimism was cut off at the knees over the years. There’s a sense that Neil is saying that there’s no reason to stop trying.

There are still things that need to be addressed and need to be done. If you don’t have hope, what do you have?