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April 16, 2005 In our continuing quest to thoroughly explore the genre of dirty music in America, we tracked down a legendary dirty singer called Blowfly. Blowfly, a.k.a. Clarence Reid, made a name for himself in the 1970s by releasing a series of funk and disco albums with extremely dirty lyrics. Blowfly has also been called the first "dirty rapper," because of his groundbreaking 1965 "soul-talking" song, "Rap Dirty," which only became popular after the Sugar Hill Gang hit big with "Rapper's Delight" in 1979. Since then, Blowfly has been sampled by dozens of rappers, including Ice Cube, Eminem and Dr. Dre, and was a big inspiration to Luther Campbell and 2 Live Crew. In fact, Blowfly and Campbell will be teaming up later this year for a concert date. But when Blowfly wasn't wearing his trademark mask and superhero suit emblazoned with the initials "BF," he was writing and releasing songs under his real name, Clarence Reid. Reid wrote hits for K.C. & The Sunshine Band and other bands of the day and has over 2,000 mainstream songs to his credit. But Blowfly came first and it is what Reid is best remembered for. It was our good fortune to learn that, after pretty much dropping off the scene in 1988, Blowfly was touring again in support of a new album, "Fahrenheit 69," to be released on Alternative Tentacles Records in June 2005. We caught up with Blowfly, now 60, and his band at a stop on their East Coast tour, at Asbury Lanes in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Their rented van pulled up as I was grabbing an establishing shot outside and drummer/manager Tom Bowker introduced me to Blowfly. "Your name ain't Nick," Blowfly told me, "it's Prick!" And who was I to argue with a legend? The scene at Asbury Lanes was pretty surreal, so we were glad to have our intern Rick Perry along to witness everything. The opening band, Barry and The Penetrators, attracted a young and tattooed demographic, so we weren't sure how the crowd would react to a 62-year-old dirty funk singer in a superhero outfit. In fact, we didn't know how we were going to react, never having seen Blowfly perform live before. It couldn't have been more surreal. After an introduction from manager Tom, Blowfly emerged from behind the bowling alley counter wearing the famous sequined superhero outfit. Two young women escorted him onto the stage as he grabbed the microphone and belted out "Blowfly for President." After his raucous and raunchy performance, he certainly had the audience's attention. 
The next day we joined Blowfly and the gang up at SUNY Purchase College, an art school about an hour's drive north of NYC, for an afternoon performance at an annual outdoor music event. Also on the bill were twenty additional bands, several of which were well established in the realm of college/indie music. We shared a starchy meal with Blowfly in the student cafeteria, and then made our way to the green room for our official Blowfly interview. The interview began with Blowfly asking Joe his zodiac sign, then reciting a filthy rap he had written about Capricorns. The hour-long interview that followed wasn't nearly enough time to touch the surface of Blowfly's experiences, but we felt we got more than what we needed. That afternoon's show was a hit. At first, there was some understandable skepticism in the crowd, but by the show's end, the kids were packed in front of the stage, singing along with Blowfly's raunchy choruses. The sequined superhero outfit was in full effect, and he spent a long time after the show getting his picture taken alongside some of his new fans. We drove Joe's 1993 Ford Taurus back home that night (yes, the same one we took to Minnesota from NYC). The odometer is now at 204,500 miles. Aside from the headlights that flicker on and off sporadically, the car is in excellent shape. |
