Sunday 22 June 2008

Machine - There But For The Grace Of God Go I 1979

RCA Records PC 1456

  • There But For The Grace Of God Go I
  • Get Your Body Ready
There But For the Grace of God Go I was a monster on the dancefloor at the end of the 70's. Penned by August 'Kis Creole' Darnell, it was tarred as racist and homophobic, which of course it wasn't. It is a simple song of protest, a story of irony and hypocrisy, the stupidity of negative and ignorant thinking. The folks in the story thought that by removing their child from an environment that they considered 'less than perfect' they could protect her. In doing so, they turned her into a natural freak!

Oddly enough, in 1994 Farley & Heller in their Fire Island guise, released a cover of this song and received the same reaction. 15 years and people have learnt nothing. The title is a common saying meaning that another person's misfortune could have been yours but for the grace of God. In other words, it's not because your sh*t don't stink, it's simply that nobody smelt it. You got lucky?
Carlos and Carmen Vidal just had a child
A lovely girl with a crooked smile
Now they gotta split 'cause the Bronx ain't fit
For a kid to grow up in
Let's find a place they say, somewhere far away
With no blacks, no Jews and no gays

There but for the grace of God go I

Poppy and the family left the dirty streets
To find a quiet place overseas
And year after year the kid has to hear
The do's the don'ts and the dears
And when she's ten years old she digs that rock 'n' roll
But Poppy bans it from home

There but for the grace of God go I

Baby, she turns out to be a natural freak
Gaining weight and losing sleep
And when she's reached sixteen she packs her things and leaves
With a man she met on the street
Carmen starts to bawl, with her head to the wall
Too much love is worse than none at all



The Download Link is here: Download
Filename: Machine.rar Filesize: 17.58 MB

9 comments:

  1. This track is solid. Thanks for the info. I thought too that it was racist and homophobic at first glance, but all you got to do it listen and it's totally clear that it's the opposite. Disco and social commentary, what a great combo!

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  2. If all you do is listen to the first verse I can see how one could think it was racist, but if you listen to the whole song there is no way you can still think that.

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  3. The original banned lyric is not "gaining weight and losing sleep" it is "popping pills and smoking weed"....let's set it straight.

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  4. Is this song still available?

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  5. I was going to Comment about the original lyrics or at least The lyrics that you would hear if you had the original recording on vinyl. It looks as if anonymous straightened out the lyric situation on june 26 2022. Good looking out. The Lyrics Equal a cautionary tale, And not Coming from a Racist point of view.

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  6. I always thought the song was racist because of the no blacks no jews and no gays, but I guess its the context of the entire song that makes it not

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  7. Carlos & Carmen sound like typical Christians, nothing like Christian love/hate.. This song still sounds good today!

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