ONE of the lead singers of Deacon Blue has revealed she sang the wrong lyrics to one of the band's hit songs for three decades.
While on their new tour to mark the launch of their tenth studio album, singer Lorraine McIntosh has revealed she had been singing the wrong words to the band's best-known song, Dignity, until she heard her bandmate and husband Ricky Ross talking about the correct words.
Deacon Blue topped the charts between 1987 and 1994, when the band split, performing sporadically until reforming in 2012. Their new album The Great Western Road was released on March 21.
McIntosh shared with The Guardian how a re-recording of Dignity in New York brought to light the mistake.
"We did a second recording, with Bob Clearmountain, and Ricky did the new vocals in New York," McIntosh said.
"There was so much re-recording and different videos because the record company were determined it would be a hit. Eventually it crawled into the charts, but then it took on a life of its own.
"When we play Dignity live now, I hardly sing the first verse because the audience are singing it.
"A while back, people asked if the lyric was 'sail it up' or 'set it up'. When Ricky said 'sail', I realised I’d been singing the wrong word for 30 years."
She went on to say: "Dignity was obviously a special song, but I was 21 or 22 and couldn’t relate to the lyrics. I’d not worked for the council for 20 years and didn’t need a dream because at that age I had everything ahead of me.
"However, at gigs I realised that people really related to it, so I picked out the bits that I felt the audience would want highlighting, to sing along with."
Singer songwriter Ross reflected on how he came up with the song, taking inspiration from Glasgow City Council cleansing department workers.
"I was a teacher in Glasgow but I wanted to start a band and write songs that meant something to people. Dignity began life during a holiday in Crete in 1985," Ross shared.
"I bought Sounds magazine at the airport. Morrissey was on the cover and the headline 'Home thoughts from abroad' got me thinking about Glasgow.
"I was living in a tenement flat in Pollokshields, from where I’d see the cleansing department guys sweeping the road. So I started writing about a 'worker for the council, has been 20 years' who dreamed of sailing away on a 'ship called Dignity'."
He added: "I made the boat a dinghy because it felt like something a cleaner might afford.
"The 'Sunblest bag' mentioned was a reference to a popular make of bread, while 'raki' was the local drink on that holiday.
"I softened the line 'he takes no crap off nobody and dog shit off the gutter' to 'litter' because we realised radio would never play it otherwise.
"At a time of mass unemployment, the song was more about what employment does for people: the dignity of labour."
