Blowfly: Disco

This is a bit of a warning...This particular post probably isn't safe for work..So if your boss is in the room you might wanna play a game of Minesweeper or something instead...You'd probably be in less trouble getting caught with that on your computer screen...

And if you're at home and there are kids present you might want to send them outside for a nice game of Jarts or better yet, send them to work...

Here's a picture of a baby chicken for no reason...Alright, do you have your adult shoes on? Alright...Here we go....






















Blowfly: Disco

1977

Weird World Records

Format I Own it on: Vinyl

Track Listing: 1.  Shake Your Ass  2. What A Difference 3. Bad Fuck 4. Suck It  5.  Spread Your Cheeks  6.  Freak Out  7. Kiss It All Around 




If you haunt used record stores long enough you're inevitably going to run across records featuring some masked man, usually flanked by some of the nastiest naked women you're ever going to have the misfortune of seeing. And you're going to ask yourself, "What the hell could this possibly be?"

Was he maybe related to the Human Fly? 

 Turns out Blowfly is the alter-ego of songwriter/producer Clarence Reid, who released a long stream (still going to this day) of raunchy party records that usually consist of foul-mouthed parodies of popular songs of the day. Imagine a dirty, old Weird Al (the two were actually label-mates at one point)  who miraculously finds a way to fit the words "dick" and "lay" into every song. This particular album turns its attention towards the disco fad, which was in full swing at the time (this was released the same year as "Saturday Night Fever" to keep things in context)...

I received this as a Christmas gift from my wife last month. I could not tear my damned eyes off the hairy-bellied woman on the front cover! What the hell?! Whatever floats your boat I guess..And I don't have much room to talk...I've got quite the happy trail going too, so...

(pictured above is the most famous happy trail of all time..I always saw it as chest hair but my brother Jason pointed out that it's clearly pubes...)

I think the best thing about Blowfly is that a lot of times you can see the punchline coming a mile or two away (Example: As soon as you hear the song "Bad Luck" pop up, you instantly know the word "luck" is going to be replaced by the word "fuck." And as soon as you hear the word "fuck," it's always going to be rhymed with "suck.") Then from out of nowhere he'll suddenly hit on something that's legitimately clever and  hilarious and it ends up hitting you ten times harder than it should...(Check out the end of his 1980 track "Convoy" for the ultimate example of this...His spelling routine there is the funniest shit I've heard in my entire life...)

Anyway, back to this "Disco" album...It's actually better performed than you might expect when looking at that gloriously sketchy cover... The music would sound just fine playing in the background at Studio 54 while you're doing a few lines with Bianca Jagger.  Oh, and Blowfly is a surprisingly good vocalist! He has a kind of gritty southern soul style with an unexpected honeyed sweetness...I mean, listen to "Spread Your Cheeks." It's not the type of voice you'd expect to hear when you're listening to a guy sing about lubing up with Vaseline before taking a long drive down the Hershey Highway with his favorite girl and believe it or not, it actually adds some dignity and gravitas to the whole ordeal...I'm going to have to state the obvious...Blowfly is pretty awesome...

Now I wish I would have picked up all those other Blowfly records I'd passed over the last few years...Especially that one with the great "Zodiac" cover...

I love that cover. But yea, I could figure they were some sort of 70's party records but I never bothered to dig up the details, until I happened to catch the Blowfly documentary on Netflix one Saturday morning...

I highly recommend this movie...If only to get the privilege to see Clarence sit at a piano and sing "Shittin' off the dock of the bay...Watching my great big tuuuuurds float away..." You also get to watch the dirty old man delivering his golden filth to a whole new generation of fans...Bless him...

Here's "Bad Fuck." Enjoy...