Song of the Day — October 21
Bobbie Gentry — “Fancy”
Bobbie Gentry — “Fancy”
21.October.2020
Bobbie Gentry
“Fancy”
1969
Bobbie Gentry is an enigma in the music industry.
She’s best known for writing and performing 1967’s “Ode to Billie Joe,” a chilling song in the Southern Gothic literary tradition. She also picked up a couple of Grammy Awards, released seven albums, and had a run of successful shows in Las Vegas.
Bobbie Gentry did all of that before retiring from the music business when she was 40 years old. She has not recorded, performed, or been interviewed since she attended the Academy of Country Music Awards on April 30, 1982.
“Fancy,” much like “Ode to Billie Joe,” has a cinematic quality. It is as much an engrossing narrative as was “Ode to Billie Joe.” Where Bill Joe’s story was more mysterious (what was thrown off that Tallahatchie Bridge), Fancy’s story leaves little doubt about what the song is about.
“Fancy” is about female empowerment.
According to Gentry, herself: “[The song] is my strongest statement for women’s lib, if you really listen to it.”
“Fancy” was released as a single in 1969, at the moment in time when the Women’s Liberation movement was picking up steam.
The full-length album, Fancy, was Gentry’s sixth album in three years. Like its predecessor, the album was all cover songs …except for the title track.
“Fancy” is the only Bobbie Gentry penned song on the Fancy album. And that makes it noteworthy.
As a result of the times, the anti-hero was de rigueur in 1969; and Fancy is an anti-hero of the first order. If we define the anti-hero as “a central character in who lacks conventional heroic attributes,” it’s impossible to see Fancy as anything but.
As a poor young girl, Fancy gets turned out to prostitution by her mother. Sometimes the love of a mother shows itself in different ways (I presume):
And I saw the tears well 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 runoff 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, it was talkin’
Askin’, “mama what do I do?”
“Just be nice to the gentlemen, Fancy
And they’ll be nice to you”
The sexual awakening of Fancy is more cerebral than sexual. And like the song itself, it’s visual. The moment that Fancy sees herself in her new dress, she suddenly realizes she has physical attributes. How Gentry draws out “good” has an honesty to it, and you can hear Gentry breathe life into Fancy at that moment. It’s visceral:
And then I stepped into my satin dancin’ dress
It was split on the side clean up to my hips
It was red, velvet-trimmed, and it fit me good
And starin’ back from the lookin’ glass
Was a woman where a half-grown kid had stood
Remaining true to the anti-hero credo, Gentry makes it a point to show that Fancy can’t necessarily be seen as a victim:
I did what I had to do
But I made myself this solemn vow
That I was gonna be a lady someday
Though I didn’t know when or how
There is neither the truth of sex work nor the fantasy of it in “Fancy.” There’s nothing salacious either. It’s not sultry; Gentry’s re-telling and singing of Fancy’s story are more unapologetically seductive.
It’s sung in the manner of: “Yea, this is what I did. I’m a woman who used my sexuality to help me move my station. If you don’t like it, fuck off.”
Bobbie Gentry’s “Fancy” believes there is no harm in a woman using her attributes to change her station:
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
In 1969, a song about an emboldened sex worker was unusual.
Although I can’t help but wonder if there isn’t some allegory that Gentry is targeting, as a female singer/songwriter in the male-dominated music business, Gentry (like all women) was less an artist and more a marketable product (not entirely sure much has changed, to be honest).
And, as a product, she’s treated accordingly.
It wasn’t long after a benevolent man
Took me in off of the street
And one week later I was pourin’ his tea
In a five-room hotel suite
Now whether that “benevolent man” is a pimp, a rich client, or the music business is open to debate. Of course, Gentry wouldn’t be the first, or the last, to draw a parallel between working in the music business and prostitution.
Fancy has no pretense about her life and what she does. She’s self-aware enough to see the trade-off:
Well 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
And I ain’t done bad
As if on cue, Fancy takes the time to address the listeners who may be aghast, thinking: “She’s a prostitute, who got turned out by her own mother”:
Now in this world, there’s a lot of self-righteous
Hypocrites that would call me bad
And criticize my mama for turning me out
No matter how little we had
And 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 ears
“Fancy” circles back to where it all began, with the love of her mother.
“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
Your mamas gonna help you move uptown”
And I guess she did
The song, and album, were produced by Rick Hall. Hall was the producer and owner of FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Duane Allman, and Etta James (among others) had all recorded. His production here on “Fancy” stays on-brand for his Muscle Shoals sound.
But if “Fancy” weren’t as strong as it is, I’m not so sure the production would’ve worked as well. While Hall goes to great length to match the sound of “Ode to Billie Joe,” he gets a little in the weeds with some of the string and brass instruments.
The album Fancy peaked at #37 on Billboard’s Country Album chart and #96 on the Billboard Album Chart.
The single “Fancy” hit #26 on the Country chart, #8 on the Adult Contemporary chart, and #31 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Nonetheless, the album Fancy received a Grammy nomination for “Best Contemporary Pop Vocal Performance, Female.”
“Fancy” would prove to be the last “hit” for Gentry. She would spend much of the 1970s performing in Las Vegas.
Fancy
I remember it all very well lookin’ back
It was the summer 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
Then mama spent every last penny we had
To buy me a dancin’ dress
Mama washed and combed and curled my hair
Then she painted my eyes and lips
And then I stepped into my satin dancin’ dress
It was split on the side clean up to my hips
It was red, velvet-trimmed, and it fit me good
And starin’ back from the lookin’ glass
Was a woman where a half-grown kid had stood
“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 (please)
But if you want out, well, it’s up to you
Now don’t let me down
Your mamas gonna help you move uptown”
(Don’t let me down, don’t let me down)
And mama dabbed a little bit of perfume
On my neck and she kissed my cheek
And I saw the tears well 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 runoff 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, it was talkin’
Askin’, “mama what do 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 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 movin’ uptown”
Well, that was the last time I saw my ma
Then I left that rickety shack
’Cause the welfare people came and took the baby
Ma 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
And it wasn’t very long ’til I knew exactly
What my mama’d been talkin’ about
I did what I had to do
But I made myself this solemn vow
That I was gonna be a lady someday
Though I didn’t know when or how
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
“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 a benevolent man
Took me in off of the street
And one week later I was pourin’ his tea
In a five-room hotel suite
Well 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
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 my mama for turning me out
No matter how little we had
And 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 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 don’t let me down
Your mamas gonna help you move uptown”
And I guess she did