Fancy

I remember it all very well lookin' 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
 Then Momma spent every last penny we had
 To buy me a dancin' dress
 Momma washed and combed and curled my hair
 And she painted my eyes and lips
 Then I stepped into the satin dancin' dress
 It was split in the side 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
 Lord, forgive me for what I do (Please)
 But if you want out, well it's up to you
 Now, don't let me down
 Your Momma's gonna help you move uptown"
 (Don't let me down, don't let me down)
 Momma dabbed a little bit of perfume on my neck
 And she kissed my cheek
 Then, I saw the tears well up in her troubled eyes
 When she started to speak
 She looked at our pitiful shack and then
 She looked at me and took a ragged breath
 "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-heel shoe
 It sounded like somebody else that was talking
 Askin' "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, well it's up to you
 Now get on out, girl, you better start movin' uptown"
 Well, that was the last time I saw my Ma
 The night I left that rickety shack
 'Cause welfare people came and took the baby
 Mom 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 Momma been talkin' about
 I did what I had to do
 But I made myself this solemn vow
 That I was gonna to 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 mighta 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"
 Wasn't long after a benevolent man
 Took me in off the street
 And one week later I was pourin' his tea
 In a five-room hotel suite (yes, she was)
 Well, I've charmed a king, a congressman
 And an occasional aristocrat
 And I got me a Georgia mansion
 And an elegant New York townhouse flat
 And I ain't done bad (she ain't done bad)
 Now, in this world there's a lot of self-righteous hypocrites
 That would call me bad
 And criticize my Momma for turnin' me out
 No matter how little we had
 And though I ain't had to worry about nothin'
 But now on fifteen years
 I can still hear the desperation
 In my poor Momma's voice ringin' in my ear
 "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, well it's up to you
 Now, don't let me down
 Your Momma's gonna help you move uptown"
 And I guess she did