The old man sits upon the hillside, he's not having fun
He says “First you take me language, now you take my sons
You've got the cheek to take the piss if I don't talk your language right
But when I curse you in mine it'll chill you bones with fright”
The kids don't understand him 'cause he's living in the past
He says “All good things are transient, only shit things las”t
They won't be like their old man, they won't dilly dally
They just pack their bags and drive their van from desperation valley

Billy teaches English, drama on the quiet
One day he'd be an actor if he gets the guts to try it
Soon he'll make the break he tells his friends at the pub
Till then he directs the panto down the club
Hopes to be like Sean Connery and make it rich some day
And preach about his homeland from a thousand miles away
Wants to be a street cred movie star like Ray McAnally
His first step's to propel his car from desperation valley

Chapel's full no longer as it was yesterday
Though there's a lot of things to pray for they've forgotten how to pray
Meanwhile a death metal fan sits down by the pub fire
And thanks God they've disbanded the local male voice choir
Another era ended the day Dai Jenkins died
But was it for Dai Jenkins or the valley that they cried
Who here recalls his thunder at that final miners' rally
Now he's just one more corpse under desperation valley

Outside the public house two string men have a fight
To them it's more important to be hard than to be bright
Benwhile inside it's another night of beer and darts and pool
With the same group of friends they''ve been drinking with since school
So it's fifteen pints a night then back home to screw the wife
But they don't mean anything by it, it's just a way of life
She stays home watching videos of “When Harry Met Sally”
And dreams about the road which goes from desperation valley

Beneath his breath young Gareth muttered as he got on board the train
This valley gave me nothing I will give it back the same
He but one ambition, to be a rolling stone
He'd spent too long stagnating, now's the time to roam
He was so proud of the bridges he had burned
'Said the only thing he knew for sure is that he'd never return
But when he died in a knife attack in a darkened East End ally
His mother brought his body back to desperation valley