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 Popping pills and smoking weed And when she's sweet sixteen, she packs her things and leaves With a man she met on the street Carmen starts to bawl, bangs her head to the wall Too much love is worse than none at all There but for the grace of God go I