Machine - There but for the grace of God go I (First reaction) 

Clare Bathé female lead vocals left this group to perform on Broadway in LENA HORNE: THE LADY & HER MUSIC BROADWAY SHOW, Jelly’s Last Jam with GREGORY HINES ETC! She is still singing today with her powerful vocals! Jay Stovall is the male lead and guitar player on this song. I have seen him with his other singer that he has now and they are singing with tracks with the original singers vocals playing.

One of the greatest disco songs ever. When this song is played in the clubs you can actually feel the dance move up and down.

Gratidão por postar essa maravilha. Abraços Brazil

Oooh, that's interesting. The lyric you read has the "popping pills and smoking weed" line, which is not in the track you listened to - and I've never been able to find the version with that line, to the point where I suspect it may be a myth. Some versions (and almost all cover versions) change the line "no blacks, and no jews, and no gays" to "where only upper class people stay", which is alright but the original line calling out their bigotry is so much more powerful.

August acted mostly as producer for the band. He believed the music of this then unnamed track had hit potential so he wrote lyrics he believed would contribute to the songs success. It may have been the story the lyrics told that helped the song succeed or the controversy of the lyrics. The Kid Creole versions has different lyrics.

Love this. Reminds me of listening to my transistor radio back in the day.

This packed the gay club dance floors even well into the ‘80s

Hi great to have you back and pleased to learn that your ok! Really enjoyed that song and reaction, and as always love to hear your thoughts and insight

I was DJing when this was new and was a monster hit! One of the greatest Disco songs of all time. Here's the video... ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-8ub2uAqVuOo.html

As you can see, this was a huge club hit back in the 80s and beyond really. Also, it came out when sound systems, speakers and clubs were really gaining wattage, sonic power and fidelity, basically an analogue version of todays digital revolution. This song in a dance club in the late 70s and early 80s into the 90s was a massive sound. The lyrics were very in your face and later releases were rewritten. But top DJs always played the version you have. Your interpretation was very good, but the late 70s in NYC were very very rough. Being a parent then must have been a real issue. Great review!

Sounds like you've had a right time of it sweetheart, really glad to see you back! 😊🌺

Welcome back ❤

So you got a bunch correct and other parts need adjustment. All about the lyrics and music ✅... The soaring lyrical the driving power all good. The context of the song is the correction. Having grown up in NY at the time and danced to song in clubs..... The song is really told from the father's perspective and an outsider. So the first thing is the father is an overbearing overprotective Italian/American. His daughter is with a Latin (the Bronx had been in ethnic transition for decades, but it became much more rapid starting in the 50'S), so he is upset . ...There but for the grace of God - is the father in the popular refrain of the day = 20:50 { "Billy Bob was caught with drugs at school..." Well thank God our kids are not on drugs..... .. and by the grace of God the kids were able to escape to the suburbs [think urban decay of the docks or Schfield to the country] and they left it apl behind and were safe. NYC was very polarized, a vestigial part of Red Lining in mortgage banking. So NYC/Bronx had ethnic neighborhoods Black, Jewish Gay- was Greenwich Village. NYC had just come out of Bankruptcy , Mental institutions could no longer be used as warehouses - so homeless were all over, AIDS was full blown along property crime - chain snatching robbing liquor stores (common scapegoats were the blacks Jews and gays)..... So while by the grace of god they escaped and the granddaughter turns out to be a freak and no better off. Yes he was in KCC

Nice to see you are well and see Bagpuss is keeping his eye on you🤣 You've passed the 2000 yeahhhh! More videos then? On to the track which is a great song and still spun by DJ's. Very Sylvester like and August formed Kid Creole after this band split and he did a version of it with them. As you say quite controversial lyrics for the time. A fine story of overprotection which backfires badly.

THIS IS THE UNCUT VERSION ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YGBDAxCDLs4.html