Blowfly

Blowfly served as the X-rated persona adopted by Clarence Reid, the songwriter and producer who enjoyed notable achievements writing and producing for Gwen MacRae, KC & the Sunshine Band, Betty Wright, and additional artists during the 1970s while employed at TK Records, then the leading Florida disco imprint. In certain audiences, however, Reid remains most associated with the Blowfly character, the Redd Foxx of the Southern soul scene, whose specialty involved profane reworkings of contemporary soul and pop material. Across more than two dozen albums, nearly all captured live in the studio amid the atmosphere of a liquor-soaked all-night gathering, the output blended obscenity and humor in a manner that stayed amusing without becoming repulsive or overly polished.

Reid entered the world in Vienna, Georgia, on Valentine’s Day, 1939. The moniker originated in the early 1960s after his grandmother overheard the teenager performing suggestive versions of a current song and declared the boy “nastier than a blowfly.” Relocating to Miami in the mid-1960s, he connected with producer and label head Henry Stone. Recording under his given name for Stone’s Alston and TK labels, Reid issued several straight-ahead R&B albums and scored multiple chart entries, beginning with the 1969 Top Ten soul single “Nobody But You Babe.”

Reid retained his talent for twisting Top 40 tracks into vulgar form. After presenting such versions privately to associates for several years, he revived the childhood nickname in 1970, entering the studio after hours alongside session players to lay down the first Blowfly LP, The Weird World of Blowfly. Because Stone’s imprints declined involvement, Reid issued the set himself on Weird World, packaging it in a peculiar homemade sleeve that showed him atop a trash can wearing a comically grotesque monster mask, makeshift wings, a blue sweater bearing yellow “BF” lettering, tighty-whiteys with knee socks, a rubber chicken in one hand, and the other hand reaching toward two large-Afro’ed nude women kneeling at his feet.

Distributed through the same semi-underground channels that handled Rudy Ray Moore’s Dolemite releases and comparable cult items, the Blowfly catalog achieved widespread popularity. Although Blowfly’s identity as Clarence Reid was common knowledge from the start, every subsequent sleeve depicted him in an elaborate or eccentric costume. His reluctance to confirm the connection publicly arose both from a devout Christian background—he avoided alcohol and tobacco and had served as a minister—and from legal risks illustrated by the later prosecution of his associates 2 Live Crew. Retailers in various locales faced charges for stocking Blowfly titles, and Reid himself drew a lawsuit from then-AS CAP president Stanley Adams after transforming the jazz standard “What a Difference a Day Makes” into “What a Difference a Lay Makes.”

Throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, Reid continued releasing Blowfly material on assorted labels, working alongside kindred spirits such as 2 Live Crew and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Cultural recognition even led to a mid-1970s holiday single containing “Jingle Fuckin’ Bells” and “Queer for the New Year.” He appeared in the low-budget 1991 documentary The Twisted World of Blowfly, while several albums received CD reissues during the 1990s, culminating in The Best of Blowfly: Analthology in 1996. Clarence Reid, performing as Blowfly, succumbed to liver cancer at a South Florida hospice in January 2016 at age 76.