Songfacts®:

• "Dignity" is the debut single and one of the most iconic songs by the Scottish pop-rock band Deacon Blue. Written by lead singer Ricky Ross, it tells the story of a humble council street sweeper with dreams of dignity and freedom. It was the song that earned Deacon Blue their first record deal.
• At the song's center is "Bogie," a Glasgow council street sweeper who has spent 20 years brushing up crisp packets and cigarette ends but secretly dreams of saving enough money to buy a boat named Dignity. Bogie's escape plans aren't glamorous, but they're steady and honest: he wants to sail up the west coast of Scotland, take holidays, and prove that achievement can come from persistence rather than luck. It's the pop song version of that scene in "Fast Car" where Tracy Chapman imagines driving away from her troubles.
• Ross got the idea from some street sweepers he observed outside his tenement window in Pollokshields, Glasgow, a working-class neighborhood. He wrote the song while on holiday in Greece, staring at a very different street and a very different beverage, which explains his line about raki, the local firewater. "I was sitting messing around with lyrics, bored on holiday, in a far away scene," Ross told The Daily Record.
• "Dignity" first came out in March 1987 as the lead single from Deacon Blue's debut album, Raintown. It didn't do much damage in the UK at first, though it performed modestly in the Netherlands. The first release featured a different vocal and alternate lyrics in its 12-inch version.
  
  After the success of two subsequent singles, the band decided to re-record "Dignity" in November 1987 with producer Bob Clearmountain. This re-recorded version was released as a single in January 1988 and finally charted in the UK, reaching #31. This helped revitalize interest in the Raintown album, boosting its sales.
  
  A third release in 1994, from Deacon Blue's compilation Our Town - The Greatest Hits, carried it even farther, reaching #20, proving that sometimes dignity comes slowly but eventually does arrive.
• For a long time, Ross' co-vocalist Lorraine McIntosh wasn't sure if the lyric in bridge is "sail it up" or "set it up." It's "sail."
  
  "When Ricky said 'Sail' I realized I'd been singing it wrong for 30 years," she admitted.
• Over the decades, "Dignity" has grown into a closing-song tradition at Deacon Blue shows, one of those lighters-in-the-air moments that reliably makes grown Glaswegians sniffle. It topped the public vote for '80s songs in Scotland's Greatest Album contest in 2011 and featured prominently in the closing ceremony of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
• Raintown was conceived as having overtones of a concept album relating to the struggles of urban life in Glasgow, with themes of unemployment and financial hardship woven throughout. "Dignity" offers a more optimistic counterpoint to the darker reflections on city life found elsewhere on the record.