Karaoke Fancy

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"
She said
"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 eyes and she started to speak
She looked at a pitiful shack and then she looked to 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 "Just 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
Wasn't very long till I knew exactly
What my Mama'd been talkin' about
I knew what I had to do but I made myself this solemn vow
That I's gonna be a lady someday
Though I didn't know when or how
Well 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"
She said
"Here's your one chance
Fancy don't let me down"
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
Ain't done bad
In this world there's a lot of self-righteous hippocrates that'd 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
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
Well I guess she did

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