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   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   When she started to speak   She looked at a pitiful shack And then 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 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 heeled shoe   It sounded like somebody else that was talkin'   Askin' Mama what do I do   She said 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 downLord 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 'til 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   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   Here's your one chance Fancy don't let me down      It 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   And I ain't done bad      Now in this world there's a lot of self-righteous   hypocrites    That would 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      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 Mama's gonna help you uptown