912 Greens (1968)

[Monologue]
Around about 1953 I went down to New Orleans
Perhaps I should say many years ago
It was in the summer time
I went down there with Frank and Guy
We sang and bust our way through the Smoky Mountains
And on down to New Orleans

And while we were down there, we had a name of a fella to look up
Billy Faier was a five-string banjo picker
Lived in a house called 912 Toulouse Street
And the way we found him, well that was a whole 'nother song
Let's just say we found Billy Faier
And he took us over there to 912 Toulouse Street

The only entrance I knew to this place
Was over a back fence up an alley
And over a fence, by some garbage cans, look out for that rusty nail
Now you're up, now you're over
And there was a cement over patio
With a pave of concrete, with a banana tree in the middle it
Well, I never did see no banana hanging on it
As they said it was a banana tree
And a wooden staircase leading up to a wooden balcony
That connected all the various different musicians
And different various pads
And a grey cat with three legs named Grey
That used to lope along and fall down
'Cause Grey he had a stroke, couldn't run too good on them three legs no how

It was very hot there and humid in August
What with the wind coming off the Mrs Miller River by the Jax Brewery
And around towards sundown, the weather broke and the
To a tropical rainstorm and the rain came

And there was this girl there who had once been an ex-ballet dancer
And she took all her clothes off and danced around in the rain
Around the banana tree, around and around
And I followed suit

Until the rain stopped
So naturally everybody ran indoors
And we sat around drinking Billy Faier's wine
And getting acquainted till it was almost sun-up
And as day started breaking, everybody start splitting
Over that back alley fence
Which was the only entrance I ever knew to that place
And I split too

Stayed around three weeks in New Orleans
Never did see the light of day
And I never have been back

Did you ever, stand and shiver
Just because you were, looking at a river