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
 Well, 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"
 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 heel 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
 That 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 'til I knew exactly
 What my mama been talkin' about
 I knew what I had to do
 And I made myself this solemn vow
 That I's gonna be a lady someday
 Though I don'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
 One week later I was pourin' his tea in a five room hotel suite
 I charmed a king, a congressman and an occasional aristocrat
 And then I got me a Georgia mansion
 And an elegant New York townhouse flat
 And I ain't done bad
 ♪
 Now in this world there's a lot of self-righteous hypocrits
 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
 Well I can still hear the desperation in my poor mama's voice
 Ringin' in my ears
 "Here's your one chance, Fancy, don't let me down"
 Oh, "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 hun your mama's gonna move you uptown"
 Oh and I guess she did