This is a tribute to some of the unique and forgotten
music and artists of the past.
Some of this music and the artists
never received the chance they deserved,
some deserve to be
forgotten. None the less, enjoy my tribute to Retro
Rarites
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Back
to 1969 and 1970 respectively once again –
An artist known to
some as Clarence Reid had been poking around the R&B (and
eventually the pop charts) for some time. Some may know him for his
very blue compositions as “Blowfly”. A name he adopted from his
grandmother, who overheard him as a child singing nasty lyrics to a
song and said, "You is nastier than a blowfly."
Then again,
most of you will know him indirectly for writing and/or producing
famous songs for artists including Betty Wright, Sam & Dave,
Gwen McCrae, Jimmy "Bo" Horne, Bobby Byrd, and KC & the Sunshine
Band. No doubt you recall the million-selling "Clean Up Woman," for
Betty, and he co-wrote and co-produced "Rockin' Chair," which
reached the pop Top Ten in 1975 for Gwen, wife of George McCrae who
recorded the million-selling “Rock Your Baby”.
According to
Wikipedia, Reid would also write sexually explicit versions of hit
songs for fun but only performed them for friends at parties or in
the studio.
In 1971, along with some studio musicians, he
recorded an entire album of dirty songs under the name Blowfly. The
album, “The Weird World of Blowfly”, features Reid dressed as what
Wikipedia called a low-rent supervillain on the cover. Supposedly
Clarence created this alter ego to protect his career as a
songwriter. He continued to perform in bizarre costumes as the
Blowfly character and continued to record sexually explicit albums
throughout the '70s and '80s. The albums were widely popular as
"party records".
Clarence Henry Reid was born February 14,
1939 in Cochran, Georgia. He recorded many songs of his own in the
'60s and '70s including probably his biggest actual Billboard hit
"Nobody But You Babe", which reached number seven on the R&B
chart in the summer of 1969. It only reached 40 on the Top 100 but
climbed to #4 on September 3rd spending a total of 8 weeks on The
WOLF Hot 30 in Syracuse. The second and third singles from this
album were not as lucky.
“Part Time Lover” and “I’m Gonna Tear You A New Heart” did
nothing nationally, (#120 on the Bubbling Under chart on 11/8/69).
He did have some minor hits later with "Good Old Days" in early
1972, and "Funky Party" in the summer of 1974 on the R&B charts.
But his true talent came in the way of writing and
producing.
Also interesting to note: Reid's daughter is
former WNBA player Tracy Reid. She was selected by the Charlotte
Sting in the first round (7th overall) of the 1998 WNBA Draft. She
went on to capture the 1998 WNBA Rookie of the Year, the lowest pick
to win the honor to date. After three seasons with the Sting, Reid
was dealt to the Miami Sol and also played with the Phoenix Mercury
and Houston Comets. |
Clarence Reid -
Nobody But You Babe - I'm Gonna Tear You A New
Heart
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Please check out my
tribute to WOLF, The Syracuse
Rocker |
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Copyright ©
2012 Retrorarities Music
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