Fancy

(الألبوم: Fancy - 1970)

Well, I remember it all very well looking back
It was the summer that I turned eighteen
We lived in a one-room, run down shack
On the outskirts of New Orleans

We didn't have money for food or rent
To say the least we were hard-pressed
When Momma spent every last penny we had
To buy me a dancing dress

Well, Momma washed and combed and curled my hair
Then she painted my eyes and lips
Then I stepped into the satin dancing dress
It was split in the side clean up to my hips

It was red, velvet-trimmed, and it fit me good
And staring back from the looking glass
Was a woman
Where a half grown kid had stood

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 girl it's up to you
Now get on out, you better start sleeping uptown"

Momma dabbed a little bit of perfume
On my neck and she kissed my cheek
Then I saw the tears welling up
In her troubled eyes when she started to speak

She looked at our pitiful shack and then
She looked at me and took a ragged breath
"Your Pa's runned 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 across
The toe of my high-healed shoe

It sounded like somebody else was talking
Asking, "Momma what do I do?"
She said, "Just be nice to the gentlemen, Fancy
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 get on out, girl, you better start moving uptown"

Well, that was the last time I saw my momma
When I left that rickety shack
'Cause the welfare people came and took the baby
Momma died and I ain't been back

But the wheels of fate had started to turn
And for me there was no other way out
It wasn't very long till I knew exactly
What my momma was talking 'bout

I knew what I had to do
But I made myself this solemn vow
That I was gonna to 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
I mighta 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 one chance, Fancy, don't let me down

Wasn't long after that a benevolent man
Took me in off the streets
One week later I was pouring his tea
In a five roomed penthouse suite

Since then I've charmed a king, a congressman
And an occasional aristocrat
And I got me a Georgia mansion
And an elegant New York townhouse flat

Now I ain't done bad

Now in this world there's a lot of self-righteous
Hypocrites that would call me bad
They criticize Momma for turning me out
No matter how little we had

And though I haven't had to worry 'bout nothing
Now for nigh on fifteen years
I can still hear the desperation
In my poor mommas voice ringing in my ears

"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 get on out, you better move uptown
And I guess she did"