The section of St Louis where Stagger Lee shot Billy, around 11th and Morgan, was a popular area for black Mississippi dockworkers in the late 1800s and up til the Second World War, and it was known as "Deep Morgan". It was an area of taverns and whorehouses (barrelhouses), and gave its name to Henry Brown's Deep Morgan Blues. St Louis in the early years of the twentieth century, and Deep Morgan in particular, became a hot bed for piano blues, and the birthplace of barrelhouse style. The style was inherited by latter day players in the area, and can be heard in the the rock 'n roll records of Chuck Berry and his piano player, Johnny Johnson, both Mound City natives. In fact, Berry's unique guitar phrasings had their origin in his attempts to mimic Johnny's barrelhouse piano style on songs like Johnnie B. Good.
For more info on the blues greats of Deep Morgan, click here.