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 eys
When she started to speak
She looked at a pitiful shackAnd 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 accross
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 `til I knew exactly
What my Mama`d been talkin` about
I knew what I had to do but I made myself this
solemn vowThat 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
(Added 3rd Verse)
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
hippocrates
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
