| "Dominion Road" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Single by The Mutton Birds | ||||
| from the album The Mutton Birds | ||||
| B-side | "White Valiant" | |||
| Released | 1992 | |||
| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 4:27 | |||
| Label | Virgin | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Don McGlashan | |||
| Producer(s) | The Mutton Birds | |||
| The Mutton Birds singles chronology | ||||
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"Dominion Road" is the debut single by New Zealand rock band The Mutton Birds. The song was released in 1992 as one of four singles to promote the band's debut self-titled album. Despite only spending ten weeks on the New Zealand singles charts and peaking at #31, the song has since become a New Zealand classic, being rated as the 23rd best New Zealand song of all time by the Australasian Performing Right Association in 2001.[1] The song has resulted in the installation of a brass plaque in the footpath approximately half-way down the song's namesake street, in a reference to the song's lyrics.[2]
Mutton Birds member Don McGlashan wrote the song after seeing a man from a bus window who, per McGlashan, "looked like he had been dealt some difficult hands in life".[2] The song is an imagined backstory for this man and sees him occupying a halfway house on Dominion Road, with the song having been described as a "story of one man's suffering and ultimate salvation".[3][4]
- ^ Sergent, Bruce. "APRA Top 100". Article. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
- ^ a b WHITTAKER, EMMA (9 April 2013). "Dominion Rd plaque lauded". Stuff. Retrieved 14 May 2022.
- ^ "Remember this? Music month flashback". NZ Herald. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
- ^ "The Mutton Birds, 'Dominion Road', 1992". teara.govt.nz. New Zealand Ministry for Culture and Heritage Te Manatu Taonga. Retrieved 15 May 2022.