Audio By Carbonatix
Whether they know it or not, every F-bombing hip-hop smut-mouth currently earning parental-advisory stickers owes a debt of filthitude to Clarence Reid’s ebullient alter ego, Blowfly. Reid performed and produced R&B under his own name during the ’60s and ’70s, but he found fame of a more lasting, and lustful, sort with the release of 1971’s The Weird World of Blowfly, which gave soul classics a perverse spin: “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay” became “Shitting on the Dock of the Bay,” “Rainy Night in Georgia” was transformed into “Spermy Night in Georgia,” and so on. Sophisticated? No way — but Reid’s brand of scatology is cheerful enough to charm all but the most bilious of bluenoses. Today Blowfly continues to find hit tunes to parody: His most recent CD, 2004’s Fahrenheit 69, includes the R. Kelly salute “I Believe My Dick Can Fly,” and he’s hard at work on Blowfly’s Punk Rock Party, whose title conjures up all manner of grungy possibilities. If he remakes “Smells Like Teen Spirit” as “Smells Like Teen Smegma,” don’t be surprised. Blowfly, who’ll share the stage with Despot at the hi-dive, remains every bit the arrested adolescent he’s always been. And thank goodness.
