INTO THE VALLEY by THE SKIDS
Words and music by Stuart Adamson and Richard Jobson.
This song was released as single in 1979 and appeared on the “Scared to Dance” album
in the same year. The single got into the UK top ten, and has since been used on coffee
adverts and football shows.
I’ve just started playing this classic Skids song again and this is the way that I now
do it. The trickiest bits to this song are maintaining the rhythm playing, whilst
defining the accents by driving down the picked rhythm and palm muting. To get an
idea of what’s going on it’s best to listen to the CD.
I first played this song with the guitar de-tuned to Eb now I just drop tune the 6th
string to D giving the tuning pattern of D A D G B E. The song gallops along at about
147 BPM and is for the most part in 4/4 timing. The one exception is at the end of the
intro riff where the timing changes to 6/4 for D6, D5 pattern.
To get the right sort of distorted guitar sound, its best to use a guitar with the
bridge humbucker selected and run it through your amp/pod with the drive set to about
6.5, the treble at about 8, the mids at about 8 and the bass at about 5 with no reverb.
You should be looking to get a crunchy tone as you’ll need a thick sound for the PM
sections.
In the solo section I’ve annotated the bends between notes with the letter b, it
follows that a bend up is followed by a bend down.
Chords.
D5 xx032x D5* x577xx
A/D xx0220 A5 777xxx
G xx54xx F#5 444xxx
C5 x355xx G5 555xxx
G/D xx000x B5 999xxx
Intro. Fisrt two bars are just the bass, then…
D5 A/D G
PM---------------------------------|
||-----------0-0-0-0--|------------------||
||--3-3-3-3--2-2-2-2--|------------------||
||--2-2-2-3--2-2-2-2--|-4-4-4-4-4-4-4-4--||
||--0-0-0-0--0-0-0-0--|-5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5--||play this part twice
||--------------------|------------------||
||--------------------|------------------||
C5 G/D A/D D6D5D6D5 D6D5D6D5 (in 6/4 timing)
PM---------------------------------------------|
|--------------------0--|-------------------------||
|-------------0-0-0--2--|-------------------------||
|-5-5-5-5-5-5-0-0-0--2--|-4-2-4-2-2-2-4-2-4-2-2-2-||
|-5-5-5-5-5-5-0-0-0--2--|-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-||
|-3-3-3-3-3-3-----------|-------------------------||
|-----------------------|-------------------------||
Verse 1
D5 A/D G
Into the Valley
D5 A/D G
Betrothed and di – vine
C5
Realisations no virtue
G/D D5
But who can define
C5
Why soldiers go marching
G/D D5
Those masses a line
A/D G
This disease is catching
D5 A/D G
From victory to stone
Chorus
D5* G5 A5 F#5 G5
Ahoy! Ahoy! Land, sea and sky
D5* G5 A5 F#5 G5
Ahoy! Ahoy! Boy, man and soldier
D5* G5 A5 B5 A5
Ahoy! Ahoy! Deceived and then punctured
D5* G5 A5 D5*
Ahoy! Ahoy! Long may they die
Verse 2
D5 A/D G
Out of concealment
D5 A/D G
Blank and stark eyed
C5
Why so uncertain
G/D D5
Our culture deceives
C5
Prophesised, brainwashed
G/D D5
Tomorrow's demise
A/D G
All systems failing
D5 A/D G
The placards un - roll
Chorus
D5* G5 A5 F#5 G5
Ahoy! Ahoy! Land, sea and sky
D5* G5 A5 F#5 G5
Ahoy! Ahoy! Boy, man and soldier
D5* G5 A5 B5 A5
Ahoy! Ahoy! Deceived and then punctured
D5* G5 A5 D5*
Ahoy! Ahoy! Long may they die
Guitar Solo
D ~~~~~~~ G | let ring | D5
|----------|------------------------------|--------------------------------|
|----------|--------------------10--------|-10b12b10-7-10b12b10---7-----7--|
|----------|-------------7-9b11----11b9-7-|--------------------------7-----|
|-7--------|-(7)-----7h9------------------|--------------------------------|
|----------|-----7h9----------------------|--------------------------------|
|----------|------------------------------|--------------------------------|
G5 D5
D5 D5 |---3---| ~~~
|---------------------------|---------------------------|------------------|
|-10b12b10-7-10b12b10-7---7-|-10b12b10-7-10b12b10-7---7-|-8-7-5-7-5-7-5----|
|-----------------------7---|-----------------------7---|---------------7--|
|---------------------------|---------------------------|------------------|
|---------------------------|---------------------------|------------------|
|---------------------------|---------------------------|------------------|
D5 D5
|-------------------------------|------------------------------|
|-10b12b10-7-10b12b10---7-----7-|-10b12b10-7-10b12b10--7-----7-|
|--------------------------7----|-------------------------7----|
|-------------------------------|------------------------------|
|-------------------------------|------------------------------|
|-------------------------------|------------------------------|
D5 G5 A5 D5 ~~~~~~
|-------------------------------|-12b14b12-10----10-12-10----------------||
|-10b12b10-7-10b12b10---7-----7-|-------------12----------12-10----------||
|--------------------------7----|-------------------------------11-7-----||
|-------------------------------|----------------------------------------||
|-------------------------------|----------------------------------------||
|-------------------------------|----------------------------------------||
Verse 3
D5 A/D G
Time for the audit
D5 A/D G
The gathering trial
C5
La la la la la la
G/D D5
La la la la
C5
La la la la la la
G/D D5
La la la la
A/D G
A collectors dilemma
D5 A/D G
Repositioned and filed
Chorus
D5* G5 A5 F#5 G5
Ahoy! Ahoy! Land, sea and sky
D5* G5 A5 F#5 G5
Ahoy! Ahoy! Boy, man and soldier
D5* G5 A5 B5 A5
Ahoy! Ahoy! Deceived and then punctured
D5* G5 A5 D5*
Ahoy! Ahoy! Long may they die
Verse 4
D5 A/D G
Into the Valley
D5 A/D G
Betrothed and di – vine
C5
Realisations no virtue
G/D D5
But who can define
C5
Why soldiers go marching
G/D D5
Those masses a line
A/D G
This disease is catching
D5 A/D G
From victory to stone
C5
La la la la la la
G/D D5
La la la la
C5
La la la la la la
G/D D5
La la la la
Outro
D5 A/D G
Into the Valley
D5 A/D G
Betrothed and di – vine
C5
La la la la la la
G/D D5
La la la la
C5
La la la la la la
G/D D5
La la la la
Repeat to fade.
What a great song. enjoy...taff
