I remember it all very well, looking back it was the summer I turned 16.
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.
And mama scraped every penny she had to by me a satin dancin' dress.
Mama washed and combed and curled my hair and she painted up my eyes and lips.
Then I stepped into that satin dancin' dress, it was slit on the side straight up to my hips.
It was red velvet trimmed and it fit me good,
And lookin' back from the mirror was a woman where a half-grown kid had stood.
"Here's your one chance, Fancy don't let me down.
Here's your chance now Fancy. Don't let me down now."
Mama looked out our pitiful shack and she looked at 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 shape locket that said "To Thine Ownself Be True".
And I shivered as I watched a roach crawl across the toe of my high heeled shoe.
It sounded like someone else who was talkin' saying "Mama what should 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 chance now Fancy. Don't let me down now.
Lord forgive me for what I do,
but if you want out girl it's up to you.
Get on out now, you'd better start movin' up town."
Well that was the last time I saw my mama when I left that rickety shack.
The welfare people came and took the baby, mama died, and I ain't been back.
I did what I had to do, but I made myself a solemn vow,
That I was gonna be a lady someday though I didn't know where to how.
I couldn't see spendin' the rest of my life with my head hung down in shame.
I may have 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 chance now Fancy. Don't let me down now.
Lord forgive me for what I do,
but if you want out girl it's up to you.
Get on out now, you'd better start movin' up town."
It wasn't long after a benevolent man took me in off of the streets.
And one week later I was pouring his tea in a five room hotel suite.
I charmed a king, a congress man, and an occasional aristocrat.
Then I got me a Georgia mansion and an elegant New York townhouse flat.
I ain't done bad.