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
 Then Mama 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 here's your one chance Fancy don't let me down
 Here's your one chance Fancy don't let me down
 Mama dabbled a little bit of perfume on my neck
 And she kissed my cheek
 Then I saw the tears wellin' up in her troubled eyes
 When she started to speak
 She looked at a pitiful shack
 And then she looked at me and took a ragged breath
 She said your Pa's run 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 be nice to the gentlemen Fancy
 And 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 you better start movin' uptown
 Well, that was the last time I saw my Ma
 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
 And it wasn't very long 'till I knew exactly
 What my Mama'd been talkin' about
 I knew what I had to do but I made myself this solemn vow
 That I's gonna be a lady someday
 Though I didn't know when or how
 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
 Here's your one chance Fancy don't let me down
 Here's your one chance Fancy don't let me down
 It wasn't long after that benevolent man
 Took me off the street
 And one week later I was pourin' his tea
 In a five room hotel suite
 I charmed a king, congressman
 And an occasional aristocrat
 Then I got me a Georgia mansion
 In an elegant New York townhouse flat
 And I ain't done bad
 Now in this world there's a lot of self-righteous hypocrites
 That would call me bad
 And 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 ear
 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
 You Mama's gonna help you uptown
 I guess she did
 So listen to Fancy
 And you pay your Mama good mind