Dick originally recorded this song for the album "True and Bold" which I believe was about miners and their struggles (I don't have it).
I wonder if this was adapted to be a song about a young man going to war (I find it hard to hear the words in places). On the cd of the original show he sang "Why Old Men Cry"
Good to see him performing again; his voice is OK, but playing the guitar looks like a real struggle. A lasting result of the stroke he had a couple of years ago, I presume.