INTRO: Em7 E D
#1.
Well, I
remember it all very well lookin’ 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 was hard-pressed..
when
momma spent every last penny we had to
buy
me a dancin’ dress.
#2.
Momma
washed and combed and curled my hair..
then she
painted my eyes and
lips.
Then I
stepped into the satin dancin’ dress..it had
a
split in the side, clean
up to my hip.
It was red, velvet-
trimmed and it fit me
good.
And
standin’ back from the lookin’ glass was a woman
where a
half-growed kid had
stood.
CHORUS:
Here’s your one chance,
Fancy, don’t let me
down.
Here’s your one chance,
Fancy, don’t let me
down.
Lord, for
give me for what I
do, but if
you want out,
well, it’s
up to you.
Now,
don’t let me down, your
momma’s gonna you move up
town.
#3.
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 as
she started to speak.
She
looked at our pitiful shack and then she looked at me
and took a
ragged breath..she said, your
Pa’s runned off
and I’m real sick and the
baby’s gonna starve to death.
#4.
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 was talkin’ askin’,
Momma what
do I
do?
She said,
just be nice to the gentlemen, Fancy,
they’ll be nice
to
you.
CHORUS:
Here’s your one chance,
Fancy, don’t let me
down.
Here’s your one chance,
Fancy, don’t let me
down.
Lord, for
give me for what I
do, but if
you want out,
well, it’s
up to you.
Get up, now, girl, you
best be movin’ up
town.
#5.
Well, that was the last time I saw my momma, when I
left that rickety
shack.
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 after, that I knew exactly what my
momma was
talkin’ ’bout.
#6.
I
knew what I had to do, but I made my
self this solemn vow..
that
I was gonna to be a lady someday, though I
didn’t know when or how.
But I
couldn’t see spendin’ 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.
CHORUS:
Here’s your one chance,
Fancy, don’t let me
down.
Here’s your one chance,
Fancy, don’t let me
down.
#7.
It
wasn’t long after that a benevolent man took me in off the streets.
One week later I was pourin’ his tea in a
five roomed penthouse
suite.
I’ve
charmed a king, a
congressman and an occasional aristocrat.
And I
got me a Georgia mansion and a
New York townhouse flat..
now, I ain’t done bad.
#8.
Now, in this world there’s a lot of self-righteous
hypocrites who call
me
bad.
They criticize momma for turning me out, no
matter how little we
had.
But I haven’t had to worry ’bout nothin’, now for
nigh on fifteen
years.
But I can
still hear the desperation in my poor momma’s
voice ringin’ in
my
ears.
CHORUS:
Here’s your one chance,
Fancy, don’t let me
down.
Here’s your one chance,
Fancy, don’t let me
down.
Lord, for
give me for what I
do, but if
you want out,
well, it’s
up to you.
Now,
don’t let me down, your
momma’s gonna help you move up
town.
(And I guess she did.)
OUTRO: E G A E..E G A E..(Fade.)