Henry Townsend
continued
"Most black clubs wasn't licensed to sell alcohol. They was most at people's houses and basements. There was a few bars that was built for entertainment. Charlie Houston's on Locust was one. Everybody knew where to go get their favorite taste for drinking, you see. One of the best in town was a lady known as Big Whopping Mary. She had a beer place. You could go there and sit and drink or bring it back home. I always wondered how she could stay in business so long, but I know now because the people she was hooked up with are still in power.
There was a lot of things you could get at speakeasys. I never was curious about marijuana. Curiosity never would let anything control me, made me drink more than I needed, I didn't like that.
At that time the white owned clubs would not hire blacks. You didn't hear about whites and blacks mixing. But there was Club Revere on Delmar. It was the most prominent place in every aspect, size popularity. People were allowed to mix. One of the most famous black men of St. Louis made that possible. He was an undertaker. Christmas time come he would give out baskets to the less unfortunate. He got a name with that when the politicians came into office they would consult him. He had the people behind him. If they didn't know him, they wouldn't get elected. He was the guy that opened that club. I know this to be true, if I wanted a job and he knew me to be responsible, any kind of job, all I had to do was have him sign this paper and I would have the job.
On being a musician:
If you are a musician it is pretty hard to put a package together. When you go to play with other musicians, they wants to stand out momentarily or too much where they aren't supposed to. One of the things I found in music, some music. Loud is not the game at all. It's got to be at a certain level. If one wants to take a solo, the rest of the band needs to dop out. Hard to find musicians to do that. On tour, I let you go. If you wear yourself down, I'll back you, keep you going.
Davenport I had a class. I told them there is no such thing as a bad note. They come over to execute that. It's simple to me. All notes are relative. How could a note be bad? You just don't put it into the right place. If one sounds out of tune, you got to blend it. I was a bad stumbler. I didn't know how to make a minor or a major, had to seek that out."
Advice to musicians:
"If you like it stay with it. Don't procrastinate because time expires, and you can't recall it" "A lot has been omitted because I have gone into great detail in my book. It is five years in the works and will be called "Henry Townsend: Blues Life". It will be published by The University Of Illinois in Chicago."