Latest / Murders to Music: Crime Scene to Music Scene (Streamline Events and Entertainment) / SnapShot: Fancy...I Came for the Chorus, Stayed for the Felonies

Transcript

SnapShot: Fancy...I Came for the Chorus, Stayed for the Felonies · Murders to Music: Crime Scene to Music Scene (Streamline Events and Entertainment)

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Music.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: Music, music, music.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's so powerful.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: We hear these songs, we listen to them, they bring back emotions, they invoke memories of days gone past, good times, bad times.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we laugh, sometimes we cry.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we don't know how they make us feel.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: We just get that hair standing up on end.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: It's called frizzant.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: We're like this em we have this emotional reaction to music, right?
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: And this is called murders to music.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I talk a lot about the murders, but I want to talk a little bit about music today in this snapshot.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: So for less than 10 minutes, I'm gonna entertain you with this idea.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know, starting back in about 1990, is when I started hearing the song by Ruba McIntyre called Fancy.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: He remembered it's one well, I remember it all very well.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Looking back, it was a summer I turned 18.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: I lived in a one-room rundown shack on the outskirts of New Orleans.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know that song?
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: That was released in 1990.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I've been singing it for all of these years, but it was just recently that I really started to listen to the lyrics of it.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I've been singing along, but I've never really put it all together.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: And now I think and I and I think this song really spans the gap of music and my prior life in law enforcement, because had this song been written today during my time, and this is a true story, I would have arrested mom.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: But I mean, mom would have had DHS all over her to say, hey, you're an unfit mother.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe you're wondering what I'm even talking about.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: But this song, it all talks about mom essentially pimping out her daughter.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: So mom is like this teenage girl, and mom is a little down on her luck and she's sick.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: So mom says, You know what we're gonna do, sweetheart?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the best idea is to get you a red fancy dancing dress that has got a split up a side clean up to my hips.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I think if we put you in that dress and we turn you out on the street, you're good looking enough that we're gonna be able to make some money.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: And uh that money you're gonna be able to give back into the house, and I'm just gonna keep working you out there, and you can make the money for the family, and that's just the way it's gonna go.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: I have literally arrested people for this exact same thing.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, so I'm I'm listening to this song, right?
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: And just some of the lyrics.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Even the girl says, you know, uh, I'm standing back from a looking glass mirror, there stood a woman where a half-grown kid had stood.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Even she recognizes that she's not ready to go out on the street.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: But mom, with her words of encouragement, you know, because we love encouraging parents, we love parents that encourage their kids to strive for their goals and just reach and obtain the stars.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Mom says, you know what, no pressure, but here's your one chance fancy, don't let me down.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Here's your one chance fancy, don't let me down.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: So if the daughter didn't have enough self-esteem to say, hey, I'm gonna go out and take this, then mom is like, you know what?
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: You're you you can't let me down on this.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: You're the only hope that I've got.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: So what does she do?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Mom dabs a little bit of perfume on her neck and she kissed her cheek and patted her on the ass and sent her out into the world.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: To hook, to be a human trafficking victim, if you will, in today's sense and words and language, to be a prostitute, to you know, whatever, right?
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's what mom sent her out to do.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: Mom is pimping her daughter.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: This seems illegal, but we're gonna write a song about it, which is gonna sell millions of copies across the nation and the world, and everybody's gonna sing along when it comes on the radio.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: Then then then then it goes on to say, well, the the kid is confused because she's a baby and she's going out on the street and she says, you know, well, Mama, what should I do?
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And Mama says, Well, just be nice to the gentleman, fancy they'll be nice to you.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Here's your one chance, fancy, don't let me down.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Here's your one chance, fancy, don't let me down.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: So even the kid is like, Mom, what should I do?
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Mom's like, you know what, figure this out.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: You'll figure it out.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, welfare actually did step in in this case and took her little sister.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: So welfare came in and took the baby from mom, and mom ended up dying in the shack, right?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: So then uh fancy's out there on the street turning tricks, doing her thing.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: She's, you know, working the avenue, and she says, you know, it wasn't very long before I knew there was no way out, and I knew exactly what mom was talking about, about being nice to the gentleman.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: She says, It wasn't long a benevolent man took me in off the street, and one week later I was pouring his tea in a five-room kitchen suite.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: She says she charmed a king and a congressman and the occasional aristocrat.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: By charming, I think she means she I'm not quite sure.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: But then uh she ended up in some Georgia mansion, so she found some sugar daddy to take her in, and she got her own new New York townhouse flat.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And she says, I ain't done bad.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: She ain't done bad, is what it says in this song.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: So now she's like living this life.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, you know what?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: I I've got some goods, I can use it, and I get the benefit from it.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I get people listening out there may think that you know what, when people are down on their luck, they turn to sometimes voluntarily human trafficking, sometimes they get sucked into it by the guy off the street, and sometimes their mom sends them down the way to pimp things out.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: And in like a serious note, I have literally had mothers who have allowed their kids to be abused because the abuser was paying their bills.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: In my world, that is n something that was not abnormal, which I think is absolutely disgusting.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: And the song goes on, it kind of ends this way.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: It says, You know, but though I ain't had to worry about nothing now gone fifteen years, I can still hear the desperation in my mama's voice ringing in my ears.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Here's your one chance, Fancy, don't let me down.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Here's your one chance, Fancy, don't let me down.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's unbelievable.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: So this song that we've listened to for years, maybe you've never heard the song, Reba McIntyre Fancy.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's literally mom pimping out her kid, and it's uh it was a big hit.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even know what to think about.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm conflicted by this.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: I spent so many years defending people in human trafficking and children victims, but only to have really been singing the song in the background the whole time.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it means nothing to you.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe Maybe this has been five minutes of your life, you'll never get back.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: But to me, it's uh something I was thinking about this weekend.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, that is a murders to music snapshot.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: I remember it all very well.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: Looking back, it was the summer I turned 18.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: We lived in a one-room run-down shack on the outskirts of New Orleans.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: Didn't have money for food or rent, to say the least, we were hard-pressed.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: And mama spent ever last penny.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: We had to buy me a dancing dress.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, mama watched and combed to curl my hair and she painted my eyes and lived.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: Then I stepped into a satin dancing dress.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: I had a split from the side, clean up to my hip.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: It was red, velvet trimming, and it fit me good.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: Standing back from the looking left, there stood a woman where a half-grown tin it stood.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: She said a here, she wanna chance fancy, don't let it down.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: She said a here, she wanna chance fancy, don't let it down.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'ma got a little bit of perfume on my neck, then she kissed my cheek.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: And then I saw the tears dwelling up in her troubled eyes as she started to speak.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: She looked at a pitiful shack and then she looked at me and took a ragged breath.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: She said your paws runned off, and I'm real sick, and the baby's gonna starve to death.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: She handed me a hard chip a lock if it said the thine old self for truth.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I shivered as a watch to won't come across the toe of mine.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: It sounded like somebody else too much and asking mama, what do I do?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: She said it's just being nice to the gentleman fans, it's the being nice to you.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: That was the last time I saw my mom when I left that ringy shade.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: The welfare people came and took the baby mama, dad, and I even bag.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: But the wheels of fate started to turn and for me, there was no way out.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: Wasn't very long till I knew exactly what my mama been talking about.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: I knew what I had to do and I made myself this time about.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: I was gonna be a lady someday though I didn't know when.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: But I couldn't stay screaming the rest of my life with my down and shame.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know my mama been born just playing my trash to the back of my name.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: One week later, I was born as to the father to the sweet.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: And then I got me a George Imagin and an elegant still for that's gonna fruits and come on my bad.