I remember it all very well lookin' back
it was the sum mer I turned eighteen
We lived in a oneroom 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 satin dancin' dress
Mama washed and combed and curled my
hair and she painted my eyes and lips
That had a split on the side
It was red velvet trim and it fit me good and star
in' back from the lookin' glass
There stood a woman where a
Here's your one chance Fancy
Here's your one chance Fancy
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 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 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
Here's your one chance...
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
And it 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
That I was gonna 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 might have been born just plain white
trash but Fancy was my name
Here's your one chance...
It wasn't 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
