“There But For The Grace Of God Go I”

In 1979, Machine had a disco hit on RCA called There But For The Grace Of God Go I. The group’s leader August Darnell went on to form Kid Creole and the Coconuts, but Machine created disco/funk music with a message.

In the original version, the first verse is:

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

This made the track fairly controversial and the last line was apparently changed to “where upper class people stay” for radio airplay.

I heard this track about a year ago on XM’s disco channel The Strobe and fell in love with it. I’m on the lookout for an original 12” of this if you ever find one…

In the meantime, get your groove on here.