The Stomping Grounds Lyrics

What did they used to play?

Well, they played every type of music. Everyone, no
doubt, had a different style.

Were they white and coloured both?

They had every class — they had Spanish, they had
coloured, they had white, they had Frenchmen, they had
American . . .

Do you remember, er, specifically, they . . . Were they
Frenchmen who had just come from France, there in those
places?

Well, er, we had ‘em from, er, all parts of the world.
New Orleans was the stomping grounds, we’ll say, for
all the greatest pianists in the country. Because there
were more jobs in that section of the world, in that .
. . for pianists, than any other ten places in the
world. The reason for that, they had so many mansions —
sporting houses that paid nothing to no pianist. Their
salary was a dollar a day in the small places that
couldn’t afford to pay. The big places guaranteed five
dollars a night. If you didn’t make five dollars, they
would pay you five dollars. But that was never the
case, because when you didn’t make a hundred dollars,
you had a bad night.

Such houses as Hilma Burt’s next, next door to Tom
Anderson’s saloon, corner of Custom House . . . and
Basin Street was one of her mansions. Tom Anderson was
supposed to be the husband of this Hilma Burt. Was no
doubt one of the best paying places in the city.

How much would you make there?

Well, I never made, never no night, as I remember,
under a hundred dollars. It was a very bad night when
we made a hundred dollars. It was very often, men would
come into the houses and hand you a twenty, or hand you
forty, or fifty-dollar note. It was just like a match.

Wine flowed . . . much more than water, di, er, did,
during those periods. And many of those houses, there’s
more wine sold than beer — I mean, the kind of wine I’m speaking about I don’t mean sauterne or nothing like
that — I mean champagne. Beer was sold for, for a
dollar a bottle. Wine sold from five to ten, depending
upon the type of wine that you bought. Of course, they
were all imported. Er, among the main ones were
Clicquot, which is a Fran, er, which is a French wine,
and Mumm’s Extra, er, Extra Dry — that was an English
wine.

Well, you were tellin’ us about this hangout for
pianists.

Yes.

Who used to be down there?

Well, I, I didn’t finish on that — I was only getting
to this point — why we had so many pianists. Well,
after four o’clock in the morning, all the girls that
could get out of the houses, they were there. There
weren’t any discrimination of any kind. They all sat at
different tables at any place that they felt like
sitting. They all mingled together as they wished to,
and everyone was just like one big happy family.

People from all over the country came there. There were
most times that you couldn’t get in. This place would
go on from four o’clock in the morning at a tremendous
rate of speed, with plenty of money, and drinks of all
types, till maybe twelve, one, two, three o’clock in
the daytime. Of course, when they . . . when the great
pianists used to leave then all the crowds’d leave.
Among some of these great pianists, I may mention some
that I remember very well. Sammy Davis, one of the
greatest manipulators, I guess I’ve ever seen in the
history of the world on a piano. And the gentleman was
. . . had a lot of knowledge in music. I may mention .
. .

Was he white or coloured?

He was a coloured boy.

Where was he from?

He was from New Orleans, born and reared in New
Orleans. He was a Creole.

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