I remember it all very well lookin` back it was the summer I turned eighteen
We lived in a oneroom 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 satin dancin` dress
Mama washed and combed and curled my hair and she painted my eyes and lips
Then I stepped into my satin dancin` dress
That had a split on the side clean up to my hips
It was red velvet trim and it fit me good and starin` back from the lookin` glass
There stood 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
Then I saw the tears wellin` up in her troubled eyes when she started to speak
She looked at a pitful 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 owenself be true
And I shivered as I watched a rouch crawl across the toe of my high heeled shoe
It sounded like somebody else that was talkin` askin` mama what do I do
Just be nice to the gentlemen Fancy and they`ll be nice to you
Here`s your one chance...
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 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...
It wasn`t long after a benevolent man took me off the street
And one week later I was pourin` his tea in a five room motel suite
I charmed a king a 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
