Though they managed to complete a polished performance, producer Daniel Lanois suggested something more ambitious with a Cajun band.
As the session continued into the early morning hours, the group gave up and began playing old standards like "Jambalaya", "Your Cheatin' Heart" and "There Stands the Glass".
In an article accompanying the list, critic Kevin Korber noted that the song possesses a "quiet rage" and called it, along with Oh Mercy's "Political World", "Dylan’s most direct condemnation of the culture of crass, careless consumerism that was the ‘80s".
[5] Ultimate Classic Rock critic Matthew Wilkening rated "Dignity" as the 5th best song Dylan recorded between 1992 and 2011.
A piano demo version of the song, recorded early in the Oh Mercy sessions, possibly in February 1989, was included as part of a six-song sampler in promo editions of Dylan's autobiographical Chronicles Vol.
[7] A version of the song by Felicia Olusanya (FeliSpeaks) appears in the performances streamed live on Dylan's 80th birthday, 24 May 2021, from the residence of the US Ambassador in Dublin, Ireland.
[8] An ultimately meritless federal plagiarism lawsuit was filed against Bob Dylan and Sony Records in 1995 by James Damiano; among the songs cited in the suit was "Dignity".
The suit was dismissed in 1997, with the judge stating "there is no substantial similarity in the structure, instrumentation or melody of the two songs.