"Into the Valley" is a 1979 single

Single (music)

In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...

 by Skids, taken off their Scared to Dance

Scared to Dance

-Bonus tracks :All tracks composed by Jobson/Adamson unless indicated otherwise.-Personnel:* Richard Jobson — vocals / guitar* Stuart Adamson — guitars / vocals* William Simpson — bass guitar / vocals...

album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

, and is their best known song, appearing on a number of punk rock

Punk rock

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

 and Scottish music compilation album

Compilation album

A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...

s. It reached number 10 in the UK Singles Chart

UK Singles Chart

The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...

 for the week ending 24 March 1979. It was written by Richard Jobson

Richard Jobson (television presenter)

Richard Jobson is a Scottish singer-songwriter and film-maker, best known as a television presenter, film director, producer and screenwriter.-Early life:...

 and Stuart Adamson

Stuart Adamson

Stuart Adamson , born William Stuart Adamson, was an English-born Scottish guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter, described by legendary music journalist John Peel as “Britain’s answer to Jimi Hendrix”...

.

"Into the Valley" is still used as a theme song

Theme music

Theme music is a piece that is often written specifically for a radio program, television program, video game or movie, and usually played during the title sequence and/or end credits...

 for fans

Fan (person)

A Fan, sometimes also called aficionado or supporter, is a person with a liking and enthusiasm for something, such as a band or a sports team. Fans of a particular thing or person constitute its fanbase or fandom...

 of Dunfermline Athletic F.C.

Dunfermline Athletic F.C.

Dunfermline Athletic Football Club are a Scottish football team based in Dunfermline, Fife, commonly known as just Dunfermline. They currently compete in the Scottish Premier League....

 in the Scottish Premier League

Scottish Premier League

The Scottish Premier League , also known as the SPL , is a professional league competition for association football clubs in Scotland...

 and Charlton Athletic F.C.

Charlton Athletic F.C.

Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, in the London Borough of Greenwich. They compete in Football League One, the third tier of English football. The club was founded on 9 June 1905, when a number of youth clubs in the southeast London area,...

 of the English Football League Championship

Football League Championship

The Football League Championship is the highest division of The Football League and second-highest division overall in the English football league system after the Premier League...

, whose stadium is aptly named The Valley. It was also used in their premiership years by Bradford City A.F.C.

Bradford City A.F.C.

Bradford City Association Football Club is an English association football club based in Bradford, West Yorkshire, playing in League Two....

, whose stadium is named Valley Parade.

The song's lyrics

Lyrics

Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...

 are notoriously unintelligible owing to Jobson's diction. This has been sent up in a Maxell television advertisement

Television advertisement

A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...

 which features printed (incorrect) "translations" of the words. The chorus, often misquoted, is actually "Ahoy, Ahoy, Land, Sea and Sky".

Richard Jobson has said that the lyrics were written about were about the recruitment of Scottish youths into the army and more specifically about a friend who had been killed on a tour of duty in Northern Ireland. Local legend still persists that the valley mentioned is a reference to the village of High Valleyfield, a village with a reputation for "mini warfare" between its own residents and those of nearby towns and villages (namely Torryburn

Torryburn

Torryburn is a village in Scotland, lying on the north shore of the Firth of Forth. It is one of a number of old port communities that have existed on this coast and at one point even served as port for Dunfermline...

, Rosyth

Rosyth

Rosyth is a town located on the Firth of Forth, three miles south of the centre of Dunfermline. According to an estimate taken in 2008, the town has a population of 12,790....

, Oakley

Oakley, Fife

Oakley is a village in Fife, Scotland located at the mutual border of Carnock and Culross parishes, Fife, about W by N of Dunfermline on the A 907....

 and Inverkeithing

Inverkeithing

Inverkeithing is a town and a royal burgh in Fife, Scotland, located on the Firth of Forth. According to population estimates , the town has a population of 5,265. The port town was given burgh status by King David I of Scotland in the 12th century and is situated about 9 miles north from...

), near the Skids' home town of Dunfermline.

The song was covered by street punk

Street punk

Street punk is a working class-based genre of punk rock which took shape in the early 1980s, partly as a rebellion against the perceived artistic pretensions of the first wave of British punk. Street punk emerged from the Oi! style, performed by bands such as Sham 69, Angelic Upstarts, Cockney...

 band the Street Dogs

Street Dogs

Street Dogs are a punk rock band originally from Boston, Massachusetts. The band's current line-up includes Mike McColgan, former lead singer of Dropkick Murphys, Johnny Rioux, Marcus Hollar, Tobe Bean III and Paul Rucker.-History:...

 on their 2008 album State of Grace

State of Grace (album)

State of Grace is the fourth album by the Street Dogs. It was released on July 8, 2008. It was produced by Ted Hutt and is the band's first album on Hellcat Records. It includes a cover of the The Skids' "Into the Valley"...

.