FANCY I remember it all very well looking back it was the Summer I turned eighteen We lived in a one room run down shack on the outskirts of New Orleans We didn't have money for food or rent to say the least we were hard pressed Momma spent every last penny we had to buy me a dancing dress Momma washed and combed and curled my hair and she painted my eyes and lips (Ooooo...) then I stepped into my satin dancing dress It was split on the sides clean up to my hips It was red velvet trim and fittin' good then staring back from the looking 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 Momma dabbed a little bit perfume on my neck and she kissed my cheek and I saw the tears well up her troubled eyes when she started to speak She looked at the pitiful shack 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 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 was talking said Momma what do 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 Lord, forgive me for what I do (please) but if you want out it's up to you Now get on out girl you better start moving uptown Well, that was the last time I saw my Mom I left that raggidy shack 'Cause the welfare people come and took the baby and Mamma died and I ain't looked back But the wheels of fate had started to turn for me there was no way out It wasn't very long till I knew exactly what my Mamma been talking about I 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 spending 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 It wasn't long after when a benelovlent man took me in off the street and one week later I was pouring his tea in a five room hotel suite (yes she was) I charmed a King and a congressman and an occasional aristrocrat I got me a Georgia mansion and an elegant New York townhouse flat and I ain't going back Now in this world there are a lot of self righteous hipprocrites that call me bad and critisize Mamma for turning me out no matter how little we had and though I an't had to worry bout nothing for nigh on fifteen years I still hear the desperation in my poor Mamma's voice ringing in my ears 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 (please) but if you want up it's up to you Get on out girl you better start moving uptown And I guess she did... Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...