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

But Mama spent every last penny she had

To buy me a dancin' dress



Well Mama washed and combed and curled my hair

She painted my eyes and lips well then I stepped down into

a satin'

dancin' dress that had a split on the side clean up

to my hip

Well 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



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 then she kissed my cheek

And I saw the tears wellin' up in her troubled eyes

When she started to speak

She looked at a pitiful shack and then she looked at me and took a ragged

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 then 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 be nice to the gentlemen Fancy

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,

but if you want out

Well it's up to you

Well don't let me down

Now your Mama's gonna move you 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



Well But the wheels of fate they was startin' to turn

And for me there was no way out

It wasn't very long 'til I knew exactly

What Mama'd been talkin' about



I knew what I had to do but I made myself this

solemn vow

Oh 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

Said here's your one chance Fancy don't let me down



It 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



I charmed a king, congressman

And the 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

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 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

But if you want out well it's up to you

Now don't let me down

Your Mama's gonna help you uptown

Uptown oh oh