Fancy

I remember it all very well lookin' back

It was the summer I turned eighteen

We lived in a one-room rundown shack

On the outskirts of New Orleans

We didn't have money for food or rent

To say the least, we were hard pressed

And Mama'd spent every last penny we had

To buy me a dancin' dress



Mama washed and combed and curled my hair

And she painted my eyes and lips

Then I stepped into a satin dancin' dress

That had a split on the side clean up to my hip

It was red velvet trim and it fit me good

Standin' back from the lookin' glass

There stood a woman where

A half grown kid had stood



She said, "Now here's your one chance Fancy

Don't let me down

She said, Here's your one chance Fancy

Don't let me down."



Mama dabbed a little bit of perfume

On my neck then she kissed my cheek

And then I saw the tears wellin' up in her troubled eyes

As she started to speak

She looked at our pitiful shack

And then she looked at me and took a ragged breath

She said your Pa's runned off and I'm real sick

And the baby's gonna starve to death



She handed me a heart shaped locket that said

"To thine own self be true."

And I shivered as I watched a roach crawl across

The toe of my high heeled shoe

It sounded like somebody else that was talkin'

Askin', "Mama, what do I do?"

She said just be nice to the gentlemen, Fancy

They'll be nice to you



She said, "Here's your one chance, Fancy

Don't let me down

Here's your one chance, Fancy

Don't let me down

Lord forgive me for what I do

But if you want out well it's up to you

Now, don't let me down, now

Your mama's gonna move you uptown."



Well, that was the last time I saw my Mama

The night I left that rickety shack

The welfare people came and took the baby

Mama died and I ain't been back

But the wheels of fate had started to turn

And for me there was no way out

Wasn't very long till I knew exactly

What my mama'd been talkin' about



I knew what I had to do

And I made myself this solemn vow

I's gonna be a lady someday

Though I didn't know when or how

But I couldn't see spending the rest of my life

With my head hung down in shame

You know, I might have been born just plain white trash

But Fancy was my name



She said, "Here's your one chance, Fancy

Don't let me down

She said, Here's your one chance, Fancy

Don't let me down."



It wasn't long after a benevolent man

Took me in off the streets

And one week later I was pourin' his tea

In a five room hotel suite

I charmed a king, a congressman

And an occasional aristocrat

Then I got me a Georgia mansion

And an elegant New York townhouse flat

I ain't done bad



Now in this world there's a lot of self-righteous

Hypocrites who call me bad

They criticize Mama for turning me out

No matter how little we had

But though I ain't had to worry 'bout nothin'

For nigh on fifteen years

I can still hear the desperation in my poor

Mama's voice ringin' in my ears



She said, here's your one chance Fancy don't let me down

Here's your one chance Fancy don't let me down

Lord, forgive me for what I do

But if you want out well it's up to you

Now don't let me down

Your mama's gonna move you uptown



Well, I guess she did