Donnie Iris - Back on the Streets
#294
July 15 1980 LISTENING POST DISCOVERY
Donnie Iris
Back on the Streets
Genre: Rock
4.75 out of 5
Highlights:
Ah! Leah!
I Can’t Hear You
Joking
Agnes
You’re Only Dreaming
She’s So Wild
Oh, Donnie Iris. A name I’ve heard and never explored. Thankfully we get a chance to fix that. This thing starts off so damned strong, that big Power Pop New Wavy goofball of a post-Knack song the Knack should have followed up Get the Knack with; “Ah! Leah!”. A remarkable song. It’s the Nick Gilder track. You know the one. A song that, once it’s fired up, calls back all sorts of memories and yet, you can’t name the singer if there was a gun to your head.
And then you learn that he was in Wild Cherry when they hit big with “Play That Funky Music” and that he’s freaking 77 now and is still playing concerts with Donnie Iris and the Cruisers.
This album plays like The Tubes fronted by Jonathan Richman. At other times he gives Jim Steinman a run for his money…while singing like Jim…which is to everyone’s detriment (“Back on the Streets”).
I would say that the album is front loaded but then Side Two kicks in with “Agnes” and I start to wonder…is this one of the great unknown rock records of the 80s?
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