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Release: 1978 / US – Reissue

Genre: Organic Grooves

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Nobody could have suspected the path that Clarence Henry Reid
would take during the 1960s. During this time he worked as a
singer/songwriter and producer for the likes of KC & The
Sunshine Band, Bobby Byrd, Gwen McCrae, and various others.
He would also release his own compositions, including the deep
soul classic "Nobody But You Babe", which would become a sampling
favorite of KRS-One, Erykah Badu, DMX, and more. Though
Reid maintained a reputation as a consummate professional
among the romantic soul crowd, outside of his day-job he turned
a complete 180, writing and performing humorous, deliberately
raunchy and sexually-explicit parodies of songs. These parodies
would be relegated strictly to friends at parties, and wouldn't see
a wide audience until the 1970s hit.
In 1971 Reid would gather a collection of studio musicians,
including famed R&B sidemen Timmy Thomas & Benny Latimore
on keys, and Little Beaver on guitar, to finally commit these
parodies to wax. In order to protect his identity as a songwriter
Reid took on the stage name Blowfly, and dressed as a comic
book super villain for live performances and photos. From there
he would release numerous studio albums of similarly crude
parodies throughout the 70s and 80s, which were enormously
popular as party records. These records would also go on to
become a wealth of sampling fodder for artists like Jurassic 5, The
Pharcyde, DJ Shadow, Eazy-E, and many more, as well as lead
Reid to collaborate with artists as varied as soul contemporary
King Coleman, to former Dead Kennedys frontman Jello Biafra, to
ganja-centric rapper Afroman.
1978 saw the release of Blowfly's Zodiac Party, a loosely defined
concept album which framed Reid's explicit renditions around the
theme of the Greek Zodiac symbols. Reid had already covered
this topic earlier on the similarly titled Blowfly Zodiac, but Zodiac
Party differentiates itself from its lack of parodies, instead placing
Reid in the center of a raucous shindig with his backing band,
schmoozing effortlessly with excited partygoers, curious to know
their signs. It's a singularly surreal entry in the parodist's catalog,
but a no less entertaining 70s party record.

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