Labels RCA Victor, RCA | Active until 1981 | |
Years active 1977–1981, 2009–present Associated acts Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band Past members August Darnell
Clare Bathé
Jay Stovall
Kevin Nance
Lonnie Ferguson
Melvin Lee Origin New York City, New York, United States (1967) Members August Darnell, Kevin Nance Albums Machine (Digitally Remastered), Machine, Bambini Cantano Le Canzoni Natalizie, Moving On Genres Funk, Pop music, Soul music, Disco Similar Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Arthur Miles, Dr Buzzard's Original S, The Machine, The Whatnauts | ||
Machine was an American funk disco group, formed by Jay Stovall in 1977. The band started in New York City with the intent to create the disco equivalent of R&B message songs.
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The band released its self-titled debut album in 1979, which produced its most famous single "There But for the Grace of God Go I". The song describes two Latino parents named Carlos and Carmen Vidal who move out of the Bronx to protect their baby daughter. In their new surroundings, their daughter is cut off from her own heritage and becomes self-destructive from the Vidals' cosseting. When the daughter grows up, her parents find she is the type of person from whom all their peers are trying to protect their own children. It ends with the mother's conclusion that "Too much love is worse than none at all." "There But for the Grace of God Go I" reached number 77 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent ten weeks on the chart. Slant Magazine later named it the sixth greatest dance song, and Pitchfork Media included it in its collection of The Pitchfork 500. The song ended up being censored twice: the original lyrics in the 3rd verse "Popping Pills and Smoking Weed" were changed to "Gaining Weight and Losing Sleep" and later the first verse lyrics "Let's Find a Place they say, Somewhere Far Away, with No Blacks, No Jews and No Gays" was changed to "Let's Find a Place they say, Somewhere Far Away, where only upper class people stay".
Machine released its second and final album Moving On in 1980 with two accompanying singles, but the album suffered from poor sales. The group disbanded the following year, and August Darnell went on to form Kid Creole and the Coconuts, who released a cover of "There But for the Grace of God Go I" in 1980. In 2009, three of the band's original members, Jay Stovall, Kevin Nance, and Clare Bathé, reformed the act for a tour.
Albums
Singles
In Popular Culture
An altered version of "There But For the Grace of God Go I," was featured in the 2016 Netflix series, The Get Down. In season 1, episode 2 ("Seek Those Who Fan Your Flames"), Mylene Cruz (portrayed by Herizen F. Guardiola) enlists the help of Ezekiel "Zeke" Figuero (portrayed by Justice Smith) to write a song for her church solo so that she may impress music producer Jackie Moreno (portrayed by Kevin Corrigan). The song that Zeke writes is untitled, but it is known that it is "There But For the Grace of God Go I," as Zeke muses aloud on the lyrics. Mylene gives a powerful introduction to the song, seemingly overtaken by the Holy Spirit, and the chorus is chanted/sung in Spanish ("antes de la gloria de Dios, ay voy yo") by Mylene and a few members of the choir before she launches into the song in English, with piano accompaniment by Zeke. The lyrics were further changed in this version; for instance, "let's find a place they say, somewhere far away, with no Blacks, no Jews and no gays" was changed to "let's find a place to stay, somewhere far away, where they do and play and sing as they may."
Jay Stovall appeared in 2017 on "The People's Court " in episode entitled "Sizzling Mad Disco Singer".
Songs
There but for the Grace of God Go IMachine · 1979
There but for the Grace of God1999
Rhythm Machine2012