Music
Blowfly
Playing Jan. 14 at The EndIf it’s true, as Vladimir Nabokov wrote, that “the spirit of parody always goes along with genuine poetry,” then that spirit operates in the world of raunchy funk and R&B much as it does in Nabokov’s rarefied realm. And in the world of obscenity-as-poetry, no one has straddled the line between art and invective more fruitfully than Blowfly.
Born 60 years ago in Georgia as Clarence Reid, Blowfly is best known for his parodies of soul classics collected on 1973’s The Weird World of Blowfly. Otis Redding might well be spinning in his grave laughing at “(Shitting on) The Dock of the Bay” and “To-To-To-To-To-To (The Fart Song),” and Isaac Hayes and David Porter might or might not take “Hold On It’s Running” as a supreme compliment. In a way, Reid’s Blowfly recordings stand as exemplary self-parody, since Reid is himself one of the prime architects of funk, with his recent Fahrenheit 69 tying together the loose strands of soul, rap, political commentary and plain dirty talk.
As a producer and songwriter, Clarence Reid put his name on Betty Wright’s “Clean Up Woman” and “Girls Can’t Do What the Guys Do,” as well as Gwen McCrae’s “Rockin’ Chair” and K.C. & the Sunshine Band’s “Sound Your Funky Horn,” all recorded in Miami in the ’70s for entrepreneur Henry Stone’s Cat, Alston and TK labels. Working with a group of musicians that included the superb guitarist Willie “Little Beaver” Hale, Reid helped create a spare, Caribbean-inflected alternative to Stax and Motown.
Reid’s work as Blowfly—an apparition in mask, cape and spangled jumpsuit—was an underground phenomenon, appealing to the same audience who appreciated the work of Rudy Ray Moore and Richard Pryor. But he also cut several classics under his own name; 1976’s On the Job contained “Nappy-Haired Cowboy,” which turned racism into a good bad joke in the manner of Swamp Dogg’s version of Joe South’s “Redneck.” Reid even recorded in Nashville for Buddy Killen’s Dial label and made the R&B Top 10 in 1969 with “Nobody but You Babe.”
Still, it’s his Blowfly recordings that truly blur the distinctions between the most outré soul music (as in Swamp Dogg) and your 11-year-old nephew’s schoolyard chants. Weird World’s “Jingle Fuckin’ Bells” is a neglected Christmas classic: “Your chestnuts gonna be roasting on an open fire / And with the number 69, we’re gonna erase our desire.” Fahrenheit 69, which he showcased at his marvelous shows here last July, was one of 2005’s funkiest, and funniest, political records, referencing the “African American Log Cabin Republican Association,” and offering a sensible solution to America’s dependence on foreign oil—the Booty Bus, where “all you need is a little booty to ride.”
|
---------------------------Advertisement---------------------------
|
|
---------------------------Advertisement---------------------------
|
Blowfly plans a couple of new releases for 2006: Blowfly’s Punk Rock Party and a funk/rap album. In these cautious times, it’s reassuring to know that a performer responsible for creating some of the most joyous and danceable music of the era can refuse to take himself, or his art, seriously. And from this apparent lack of seriousness arises the parody that allows for true poetry.