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 my mama spent every last penny we had
To buy me a satin dancin' dress

Mama washed and combed and curled my hair
And she up painted my eyes and lips
Then, I stepped into my satin dancin' dress
It was slit on the sides clean up to my hips

It was red velvet trimmed and it fit me good
And starin' back from the lookin' glass
Was a woman
Where a half-grown kid had stood

Here's your one chance, Fancy
Don't let me down
Here's your one chance, Fancy
Don't let me down

Mama dabbed a little bit of perfume on my neck
And she kissed my cheek
And I saw the tears well up in her troubled eyes
As she started to speak

She looked at a pityful shack and then she looked at me
And took a ragged breath
"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 ownself be true"
And I shivered as I watched a rouch crawl
Across the toe of my high heel shoe

Sounded like somebody else that was talkin'
Sayin' "Mama what should I do"?
"Just be nice to the gentlemen, Fancy
And they'll be nice to you"

Here's your one chance, Fancy
Don't let me down
Here's your one chance, Fancy
Don't let me down, down

Lord, forgive me for what I do
But if you want out, child, it's up to you
Get on out, girl
You better start movin' uptown

Well, that was the last time I saw my mom
And I left that rickety shack
'Cause 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'd been a-talkin' about

Did what I had to do
But I made myself a solemn vow
That I was gonna be a lady someday
Though I didn't know when or how

I couldn't see spendin' the rest of my life
With my head hung down in shame
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, down

It wasn't long after a benevolent man
Took me in off of the street
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