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 didnt 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 Heres your one chance Fancy dont let me down Heres your one chance Fancy dont 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 pas run off and Im real sick and the babys 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 theyll be nice to you Heres your one chance... Lord forgive me for what I do but if you want out well its up to you Now dont 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 aint been back But the wheels of fate had started to turn and for me there was no way out And it wasnt very long till I knew exactly what my mamad 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 didnt know when or how I couldnt 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 Heres your one chance... You might also likeIt wasnt 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 aint done bad
fancy, here, mama, shack, chance