I's Gonna Be a Lady Someday

Here is the first post in an ongoing series I'd like to entitle "Allison Introduces Me to Country Music." (I don't know whether this will actually become an actual series, but if it does, we all will be blessed - blessed, I tell ya!)

First, a little background. I don't know much about country music. I know and love a lot of musical genres, but country isn't one of them. At the same time, I strive not to be that cliche wherein I describe my music taste as "anything but country", so I am open-minded. Meanwhile, Allison was raised on country. Granted, she's a good LA-girl now who now follows Gaga and indie, but after being raised in Texas, she still has that twangy music in her bones, bless her heart.

So we're in the car and she has one of her country mixes on and, in between conversation, I can't help but get caught up in the lyrics of the song playing, "Fancy." As I listened, I discovered that the song was about a poor mother forcing her young daughter into prostitution.



The song is nothing short of epic and the video doesn't disappoint. I suggest reading the full lyrics, but here are my two favorite verses:

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 just be nice to the gentlemen Fancy
They'll be nice to you

I knew what I had to do and I made myself this solemn vow
That I's gonna be a lady someday
Though I didn't know when or how
But 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

Ohmguh, this is some of the best, most hilarious storytelling I've heard ever. Bravo, Reba McEntire. I always figured she had slept her way to the top, but I didn't know she sang about it, too.