Why "Walk Like a Giant?"

Why "Walk Like a Giant?"

Short answer:

Why not, fuck you.

Long answer:

I've been on a bit of a Neil Young kick lately. He's been growing on me since I bought Decade, and then saw him on the Harvest Moon tour in '92 at the Chicago Theater. At the time, he seemed like a relic from another era (although he was only in his 40's!). And I was more of a Dylan man I must say. But Neil hung in there, plugging away. And I guess he grew on me. I saw him a few more times over the years, delving deeper and deeper into his never ending catalog, connecting to his music in ways that I hadn't been able to before. Whereas Dylan was more intellectual and abstract, Neil cut right to the heart of the matter. Listen to Ohio, and watch his version of that song from the recent Journeys film. Music can't get much more intense than that. My love of Neil has been culminating, reaching a peak with the Le Noise album, which dare I say is my favorite? Tough call, but regardless, Neil Young, fuck yeah!

But why, specifically, Walk Like a Giant, you ask? My daughters, Chloe, 4, and Lily, 2, love the tune. I've played them video of both live and studio versions, and they connect with it. I'm not sure they know what a giant is, but they get it. They want to be big and powerful, and that's how the song sounds. They love the official video, as it has trains and kaleidoscopes of pretty colors. They love the feedback at the end of the live versions, as it allows them to stomp around like fools.  It keeps their attention for all 15 plus minutes, so I owe Neil for that.  I like the lyrics. They're a bit grandiose for a person like me, but its something to aspire to. We should all want to walk like giants, shouldn't we? Dominating the world in whatever way we choose.

But this is not a Neil Young blog, although I expect it will contain some Neil Young material over the course of time.  This blog will attempt to walk like a giant, laying waste to music, crushing religion, dominating politics, annihilating culture, destroying movies/tv, and generally obliterating whatever may come in my purview. 

There you have it.  Hop on board or eat a dick. 

Walk Like a Giant, live and studio edit

Walk Like a Giant live part 1:



Part 2:


More digestible official studio edit:

Walk Like a Giant lyrics

I used to walk like a giant on the land
Now I feel like a leaf floating in a stream
I used to walk like a giant
I used to walk like a giant on the land

Me and some of my friends
We were gonna save the world
We were trying to make it better
We were ready to save the world

Then the weather changed
And the white got stained
And it fell apart
And it breaks my heart
To think about how close we came
I wanna walk like a giant on the land
I wanna walk like a giant on the land

The tracks ahead were long and straight
We were riding on the desert wind
We were pulling in the spiritual
Riding in on the desert wind

We can see it in the distance
Closer every minute
We saw the lights of spiritual shining
Getting closer every minute

Then we skip the rails
And we started to fail
And we fold it up
And it's not enough
To think about how close we came
I wanna walk like a giant on the land
I wanna walk like a giant on the land

Whenever I see the big fire coming
Coming to burn down all my ideas
I try to hold to my thinking
And remember how it feels

Looking right in your eyes
Hearing your happy laughing
Seeing your blue eyes shining
Hearing your happy laughing

So the moment came
And the big sky rained
And it put out the fire
Except in my desire

And I think about how good it feels
I wanna walk like a giant on the land
I wanna walk like a giant on the land

I used to walk like a giant on the land
Now I feel like a leaf floating in a stream
I used to walk like a giant
I used to walk like a giant on the land