Nobody could have suspected the path that Clarence Henry Reid would take during the 1960s. During this time he worked as a singer/songwriter and producer for the likes of KC & The Sunshine Band, Bobby Byrd, Gwen McCrae, and various others. He would also release his own compositions, including the deep soul classic "Nobody But You Babe", which would become a sampling favorite of KRS-One, Erykah Badu, DMX, and more. Though Reid maintained a reputation as a consummate professional among the romantic soul crowd, outside of his day-job he turned a complete 180, writing and performing humorous, deliberately raunchy and sexually-explicit parodies of songs. These parodies would be relegated strictly to friends at parties, and wouldn't see a wide audience until the 1970s hit. In 1971 Reid would gather a collection of studio musicians, including famed R&B sidemen Timmy Thomas & Benny Latimore on keys, and Little Beaver on guitar, to finally commit these parodies to wax. In order to protect his identity as a songwriter Reid took on the stage name Blowfly, and dressed as a comic book super villain for live performances and photos. From there he would release numerous studio albums of similarly crude parodies throughout the 70s and 80s, which were enormously popular as party records. These records would also go on to become a wealth of sampling fodder for artists like Jurassic 5, The Pharcyde, DJ Shadow, Eazy-E, and many more, as well as lead Reid to collaborate with artists as varied as soul contemporary King Coleman, to former Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra, to ganja-centric rapper Afroman. 1978's Blowfly's Disco Party was no less lewd than its predecessors, putting a funky-disco spin on Reid's signature blend of explicit parodies, and deliberately cheeky tracks. No track is safe from Reid's dirty lyrics, as he parodies classic Motown hits, Delta blues songs, and even his own discography.
Trustpilot
3 weeks ago
2 days ago
