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Of the virtues, I suppose I think integrity is the most essential. Not dignity – a thief can have dignity.
~Bob Dylan (to Barbara Kerr, Feb 1978)
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‘Dignity’, which describes so resourcefully the yearning for a more dignified world, would have been the album’s [Oh Mercy] ideal opening track. It scorches along musically, declaring its allegiance to the timeless appeal of the blues, while sounding, above all things, fresh. Its lyric, meanwhile, though ‘Dylanesque’ in that it sounds like no-one else’s work and sounds like a restrained, mature revisit to a mode of writing you might otherwise call mid-1960s Dylan, is fully alert and freshly itself, admits of no leaning on laurels, and has the great virtue that while not every line can claim the workaday clarity of instructional prose, the song is accessible to anyone who cares to listen, and offers a clear theme, beautifully explored, with which anyone can readily identify.
~Michael Gray (The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia)

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@ #43 on my list of Dylan’s 200 best songs. It was originally recorded for “Oh Mercy” in 1989, but Dylan wasn’t satisfied with it… and left it. Michael Gray points out that it would have been a perfect opening track to the album… way better than “Political World”… only thing missing was an instrumental solo in the middle.

I will not mess with too many details around the songs recording history.. even Clinton Heylin calls Dignity’s recording history a bit… messy….

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Officially we now have 5 different versions available:

#	released	Album
1	1994	Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Volume 3 Brendan O’Brien remixed version
2	1995	MTV Unplugged Live version
3	2000	The Best of Bob Dylan, Vol. 2 Touched By An Angel version*
4	2008	The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 Piano demo version
5	2008	The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 Tell Tale Signs version2

* First released on the album “Touched By An Angel: The Album” – TV Series soundtrack compilation (1998)

Brendan O’Brien remixed version

All he [Brendan O’Brien] did for ‘Dignity’ was ruin it.
~Michael Gray

Bad version.

Fat man lookin’ in a blade of steel
Thin man lookin’ at his last meal
Hollow man lookin’ in a cottonfield
For dignity

Grooveshark:

unfortunately “Greatest Hits 3” is not available on Spotify… 

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“Dignity” is a song by Bob Dylan, first released on Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Volume 3 in 1994. It was recorded during the Oh Mercy studio sessions but didn’t make it on to the album. The version released on Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Volume 3 was remixed and overdubbed by Brendan O’Brien (who also played organ on the song on MTV Unplugged the same year). A new rhythm track was recorded and electric guitar and organ were added to the mix. The slide guitar from the original mix was mixed out. Wikipedia

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What I particularly like about it is the consis- tency of its conceit: Bob Dylan as Sam Spade, or any one of those hard-bitten, cynical LA-based private dicks, conducting his B-movie, film noir search through the corrupt world in search of the missing character, Dignity. I like the array of characters – all those sons of darkness and sons of light – typical of the wonderful supporting actors who people those films…
~Nigel Hinton

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MTV – Live version

Good version.

Sony Music Studios
New York City, New York
16 November 1994

Searchin’ high, searchin’ low
Searchin’ everywhere I know
Askin’ the cops wherever I go
Have you seen dignity?

A rehearsal video (not officially released):

O’Brien, for his sins*, got to reprise his new-found role at the two Unplugged performances in November 1994, when Dylan tried to inject half the life the song had formerly had for the benefit of the TV cameras, but with only limited success.
~Clinton Heylin (Still on the Road: The Songs of Bob Dylan Vol. 2, . 1974-2008)

*[referring to his “destruction” of Dignity]

Sony Music Studios
New York City, New York
18 November 1994
Second MTV Unplugged taping session

Met Prince Phillip at the home of the blues
Said he’d give me information if his name wasn’t used
He wanted money up front, said he was abused
By dignity

Grooveshark:

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Touched By An Angel version

GREAT version.

..the unadulterated version… the incomparably best version.
~Michael Gray (The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia)

..mercifully remastered, with the disco drums from an earlier compilation [Greatest Hits Vol.3] gone into the dumper. This version sparkles.
~Brian Hinton (Bob Dylan: Album File and Complete Discography)

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Sick man lookin’ for the doctor’s cure
Lookin’ at his hands for the lines that were
And into every masterpiece of literature
For dignity

Vimeo:

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Spotify:

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Tell Tale Signs – Piano demo

Fine demo.

According to Clinton Heylin (Still On The Road) this demo was recorded late February 1989 @ producer Daniel Lanois mobile studio.

This version was also included on the promo cd for Dylan’s Chronicles:

• Bob Dylan ‎– Chronicles Vol. 1

youtube:

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Spotify:

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Tell Tale Signs Version 2

Annoying version.

Englishman stranded in the blackheart wind
Combin’ his hair back, his future looks thin
Bites the bullet and he looks within
For dignity

Grooveshark:

Spotify:

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Lyrics

Fat man lookin’ in a blade of steel
Thin man lookin’ at his last meal
Hollow man lookin’ in a cottonfield
For dignity

Wise man lookin’ in a blade of grass
Young man lookin’ in the shadows that pass
Poor man lookin’ through painted glass
For dignity

Somebody got murdered on New Year’s Eve
Somebody said dignity was the first to leave
I went into the city, went into the town
Went into the land of the midnight sun

Searchin’ high, searchin’ low
Searchin’ everywhere I know
Askin’ the cops wherever I go
Have you seen dignity?

Blind man breakin’ out of a trance
Puts both his hands in the pockets of chance
Hopin’ to find one circumstance
Of dignity

I went to the wedding of Mary Lou
She said, “I don’t want nobody see me talkin’ to you”
Said she could get killed if she told me what she knew
About dignity

I went down where the vultures feed
I would’ve gone deeper, but there wasn’t any need
Heard the tongues of angels and the tongues of men
Wasn’t any difference to me

Chilly wind sharp as a razor blade
House on fire, debts unpaid
Gonna stand at the window, gonna ask the maid
Have you seen dignity?

Drinkin’ man listens to the voice he hears
In a crowded room full of covered-up mirrors
Lookin’ into the lost forgotten years
For dignity

Met Prince Phillip at the home of the blues
Said he’d give me information if his name wasn’t used
He wanted money up front, said he was abused
By dignity

Footprints runnin’ ’cross the silver sand
Steps goin’ down into tattoo land
I met the sons of darkness and the sons of light
In the bordertowns of despair

Got no place to fade, got no coat
I’m on the rollin’ river in a jerkin’ boat
Tryin’ to read a note somebody wrote
About dignity

Sick man lookin’ for the doctor’s cure
Lookin’ at his hands for the lines that were
And into every masterpiece of literature
For dignity

Englishman stranded in the blackheart wind
Combin’ his hair back, his future looks thin
Bites the bullet and he looks within
For dignity

Someone showed me a picture and I just laughed
Dignity never been photographed
I went into the red, went into the black
Into the valley of dry bone dreams

So many roads, so much at stake
So many dead ends, I’m at the edge of the lake
Sometimes I wonder what it’s gonna take
To find dignity

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Some live versions are due…

Brussels 1995-03-23

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Brixton (London) 1995-03-29 – BEST version 🙂

….a “Dignity” that was one of my favourite performances of the year; … This visceral live version trashes all the officially released takes.
~Andrew Muir (in Razor’s Edge – about “Dignity” played in Brixton Academy 1995-03-29)

…Yet when he performs it feeling fully alive and happy with it as a vehicle of wide-ranging expressiveness, as he did in London in 1995, then it comes into its own again, leaving Brendan O’Brien light-years behind and re-attaining accessible eloquence, excitement and, yes, dignity.
~Michael Gray (BD Encyclopedia)

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Verizon Theatre At Grand Prairie
Grand Prairie, Texas
1 November 2012

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Check out:

• Alldylan @ Facebook
• Bob Dylan – Top 200 songs
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• Bob Dylan concert videos/audios from 1990 – 1995 @ alldylan.com
• Bob Dylan: Concerts & Videos from 1996 – 1999 @ Alldylan.com
• Bob Dylan: 10 concert videos you MUST see from the 90’s
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• Olof’s “Still On The Road“

-Egil