 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
And Mama'd 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, "Now 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 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 heeled 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
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
Wasn't very long till I knew exactly
What my mama'd been talkin' about
I knew what I had to do
And I made myself this solemn vow
I's gonna be a lady someday
Though I didn'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
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
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
Now in this world there's a lot of self-righteous
Hypocrites who call me bad
They 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 ears
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
Your mama's gonna move you uptown
Well, I guess she did
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