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"Shortnin' Bread" (also spelled "Shortenin' Bread", "Short'nin' Bread", or "Sho'tnin' Bread") is an American folk song dating back at least to 1900, when James Whitcomb Riley published it as a poem. While there is speculation that Riley may have based his poem on an earlier African-American plantation song, no definitive evidence of such an origin has yet been uncovered. A "collected" version of the song was published by E. C. Perrow in 1915. It is song number 4209 in the Roud Folk Song Index.

Shortening bread refers to a bread made of corn meal and/or flour and lard shortening.

Origins

The origin of "Shortnin' Bread" is obscure. Despite speculation of African-American roots, it is possible that it may have originated with Riley as a parody of a plantation song, in the minstrel or coon song traditions popular at the time.

Riley titled the song "A Short'nin' Bread Song—Pieced Out", and wrote the first verse as:

Fotch dat dough fum the kitchin-shed
Rake de coals out hot an' red
Putt on de oven an' putt on de led
Mammy's gwiner cook som short'nin' bread

The dialect rendered into common English would be:

Fetch that dough, from the kitchen shed
Rake those coals out, hot and red
Put on the oven and put on the lid
Mommy's going to cook some short'nin' bread

The verse includes:

When corn plantin' done come roun'
Blackbird own de whole plowed groun'
Corn is de grain as I've hearn said
Dat's de blackbird's short'nin' bread

Another pair of verses may be later, and exist in several versions:

Three little children, lying in bed
Two was sick and the other 'most dead
Send for the doctor and the doctor said
"feed them children on short'nin' bread"

When those children, sick in bed,
heard that talk 'bout short'nin' bread.
They popped up well, to dance and sing,
skipping around and cut the pigeon wing.

In some versions there are two children instead of three - and the "other" either "bump'd his head" or "was dead". The first doesn't quite scan. The children (or "chillun") were once referred to by one of several racist terms.

Other verses include:

Pull out the skillet, pull out the led,
Mama's gonna make a little short'nin' bread
That ain't all she's gonna do,
Mama's gonna make a little coffee too

I slipped to the kitchen, slipped on the led,
slipped my pockets full of short'nin' bread.
I stole the skillet, I stole the led,
I stole the girl who makes short'nin' bread

They caught me with the skillet, They caught me with the led,
They caught me with the girl who makes short'nin' bread.
I paid six dollars for the skillet, six dollars for the led,
Spent six months in jail eating short'nin' bread.

Reese DuPree composed a version recorded in 1927.

Folk version

Titled "Shortened Bread", E. C. Perrow published the first folk version of this song in 1915, which he collected from East Tennessee in 1912. The folk version of the song—as with Riley's—does not have any distinct theme, but consists of various floating lyrics, some relating to "shortnin' bread", some not. The traditional chorus associated with the folk song goes:

Mammy's little baby loves short'nin', short'nin'
Mammy's little baby loves short'nin' bread (rpt.)

Mammy's little baby loves short'nin', short'nin'


Mammy's little baby loves short'nin' bread (rpt.)

Other renditions

• Al Jolson
• 1926 - Gid Tanner
• 1933 – Paul Robeson
• 1938 - The Andrews Sisters
• 1961(?) - The Viscounts
• 1952 - Sonny Terry, Sonny Terry's New Sound: The Jawharp in Blues and Folk Music (1968)
• Lawrence Tibbett
• Fats Waller
• 1959 - Dave Brubeck
• 1961 - Frances Faye
• Richard White
• Clayton McMichen
• 1937 – Nelson Eddy, Maytime
• 1956 - Etta James, Etta "Miss Peaches" James: Shortnin' Bread Rock / Tears of Joy
• 1963 – Mississippi John Hurt, D.C. Blues: Library of Congress Recordings
• 1966 – Lee Dorsey
• 1977 - Charles Mingus (parody)
• 1979 - The Beach Boys L.A. (Light Album)
• 1982 – Klaus Flouride
• 1981 – The Kelly Family, Wonderful World!
• 1990 – The Cramps, Stay Sick
• 1997 - Taj Mahal (musician)
• 1998 – The Tractors, Farmers in a Changing World (reached No. 57 on the Hot Country Songs chart), Heaven's Sake Kids
• 2002 – Laurie Berkner, Under a Shady Tree
• 2014 and 2017 – The Wiggles
• 2023 – Israel's Arcade

The Beach Boys version

"Shortenin' Bread" was recorded by the American rock band the Beach Boys numerous times. Only one version has seen official release, as the final track on their 1979 album L.A. (Light Album). The band's principal songwriter Brian Wilson was reportedly obsessed with the song, having recorded more than a dozen versions of the tune. Beach Boy Al Jardine speculated that Wilson's obsession with the song may have begun after co-writing the song "Ding Dang" with the Byrds' Roger McGuinn in the early 1970s. Numerous anecdotes have been reported about Wilson's obsession with the song:

• Alex Chilton, the former lead singer of Big Star, recalled receiving middle-of-the-night phone calls from Wilson asking him to sing on a recording of "Shortenin' Bread"' ("He was telling me I have the perfect voice for it").

• The Monkees' Micky Dolenz said that when he tripped on LSD with Wilson, John Lennon, and Harry Nilsson, Wilson played "Shortenin' Bread" on piano "over and over again".

• Biographer Peter Ames Carlin wrote that Elton John and Iggy Pop were bemused by an extended, contumacious Wilson-led singalong of "Shortenin' Bread", leading Pop to flee the room proclaiming, "I gotta get out of here, man. This guy is nuts!"

• Musician Alice Cooper recalled that Wilson considered "Shortnin' Bread" to be the greatest song ever written. According to Cooper, when he asked why, Wilson responded "I don't know, it's just the best song ever written."

A number of Wilson-produced "Shortenin' Bread" and "Ding Dang" variations remain unreleased. Titles include "Clangin'" (recorded with Nilsson), "Brian's Jam", and "Rolling Up to Heaven". A version that was developed from a 1973 session, featuring American Spring as guest vocalists, was completed for the unreleased album Adult/Child in 1977.

References

1. Wade, Stephen. The Beautiful Music all Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2012. p. 93.
2. ""Minstrel show : American Theater"". Britannica.com.
3. ""The History of Ragtime: Cakewalk and Coon song"". Blackmusicscholar.com. 28 September 2020.
4. Eitel, The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley, p. 119.
5. "Du Pree, Reese". Discography of American Historical Recordings.
6. Perrow, "Songs and Rhymes from the South", p. 142: "from Tennessee mountain whites, 1912". Archive.org
7. "Shortening Bread". 6 November 2014 – via YouTube.
8. ""Paul Robeson, Green Pastures [X27]"". Cpsr.cs.uchicago.edu.
9. "The Andrews Sisters : Shortenin' Bread. Recorded in 1938. Composed By Wood; Wolfe". 18 September 2015 – via YouTube.
10. "Shortnin' Bread : The Viscounts". 7 December 2010 – via YouTube.
11. "Shortnin' Bread". 23 May 2015 – via YouTube.
12. "Fats Waller & His Rhythm - Shortnin' Bread". 12 November 2015 – via YouTube.
13. "Short'nin' Bread (Remastered)". 24 September 2015 – via YouTube.
14. "Shortnin' Bread by Frances Faye" – via YouTube.
15. "NELSON EDDY SINGS SHORTNIN BREAD jame whitcombe riley 1938". 11 May 2023 – via YouTube.
16. "Shortnin' bread". 25 January 2017 – via YouTube.
17. "Short'nin' Bread". 8 November 2014 – via YouTube.
18. "Shortnin' Bread". 25 January 2017 – via YouTube.
19. "Charles Mingus - Shortnin' Bread". 17 August 2008 – via YouTube.
20. "The Beach Boys - Shortnin' Bread (From the Adult Child album)". 15 March 2017 – via YouTube.
21. "Klaus Flouride - Shortnin Bread / The Drowning Cowboy (1982)". 9 February 2023 – via YouTube.
22. "Shortnin' Bread". 21 July 2018 – via YouTube.
23. "The Cramps - Shortnin' Bread (1990)". 22 December 2010 – via YouTube.
24. "Shortnin' Bread". 28 February 2018 – via YouTube.
25. "Shortenin' Bread by The Tractors". 5 November 2022 – via YouTube.
26. "Shortnin' Bread - Dance Performance by Troupe 212 at Laurie Berkner Band Concert". 21 April 2010 – via YouTube.
27. "Mama's Little Baby Loves Shortnin' Bread 🎵 Sing Along Nursery Rhyme with The Wiggles". 11 April 2017 – via YouTube.
28. "Israel's Arcade - Full Live Set". 24 August 2023 – via YouTube.
29. ^ Chidester, Brian (7 March 2014). "Busy Doin' Somethin': Uncovering Brian Wilson's Lost Bedroom Tapes". Paste. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
30. Beard, David (Spring 2007). "Ding Dang". Endless Summer Quarterly.
31. George-Warren 2014, p. 124.
32. Carlin 2006, p. 172.
33. Music-News.com Newsdesk (5 July 2011). "Alice Cooper was too afraid to argue with Brian Wilson". MusicNewsWeb.
34. Chidester, Brian (30 January 2014). "Brian Wilson's Secret Bedroom Tapes". LA Weekly. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
35. "The Stylus Magazine Non-Definitive Guide: The Lost Album". Stylus Magazine. 2 September 2003. Archived from the original on 5 September 2003. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
36. Lambert 2007, p. 316.

Bibliography

• Badman, Keith (2004). The Beach Boys: The Definitive Diary of America's Greatest Band, on Stage and in the Studio. Backbeat Books. ISBN 978-0-87930-818-6.
• Carlin, Peter Ames (2006). Catch a Wave: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson. Rodale. ISBN 978-1-59486-320-2.
• Eitel, Edmund Henry (ed.) The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley, Vol 5. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company (1913).
• George-Warren, Holly (20 March 2014). A Man Called Destruction: The Life and Music of Alex Chilton, From Box Tops to Big Star to Backdoor Man. Penguin Group US. ISBN 978-0-698-15142-0.
• Lambert, Philip (2007). Inside the Music of Brian Wilson: the Songs, Sounds, and Influences of the Beach Boys' Founding Genius. Continuum. ISBN 978-0-8264-1876-0.
• Perrow, E.C. "Songs and Rhymes from the South." The Journal of American Folklore, 28:108 (April - Jun. 1915) 129–190.
• Wade, Stephen. The Beautiful Music all Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2012.
• Waltz, Robert B; David G. Engle. "Shortenin' Bread". The Traditional Ballad Index: An Annotated Bibliography of the Folk Songs of the English-Speaking World. Hosted by California State University, Fresno, Folklore, 2007.

External links

• The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley: In Ten Volumes, Including Poems and Prose Sketches, Many of which Have Not Heretofore Been Published; an Authentic Biography, an Elaborate Index and Numerous Illustrations in Color from Paintings by Howard Chandler Christy and Ethel Franklin Betts – complete text of James Whitcomb Riley's "A Short'nin' Bread Song—Pieced Out".
• A traditional version of lyrics and an MP3 clip are here Shortenin' Bread • Lyrics & Song Clip (free mp3)

• American folk songs
• Poetry by James Whitcomb Riley
• The Tractors songs
• Mississippi John Hurt songs
• 1900 songs
• American children's songs
• The Beach Boys songs
• Brian Wilson
• The Beach Boys bootleg recordings
• Bread in culture