"Shortnin' Bread"
Song
Writtenc. 1890s
Published1900
Songwriter(s)James Whitcomb Riley

"Shortnin' Bread" (also spelled "Shortenin' Bread", "Short'nin' Bread", or "Sho'tnin' Bread") is an African-American folk song dating back at least to the 1890s.[1] James Whitcomb Riley published it as a poem in 1900, building on older lyrics. 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

"Shortnin' Bread" is a plantation song. Its first written version was captured by poet James Whitcomb Riley in 1900. He 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[2]

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.[3]

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.[4] 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.)

The Beach Boys version

Background

"Shortenin' Bread"
Song by the Beach Boys
from the album L.A. (Light Album)
Released19 March 1979 (1979-03-19)
Recordedc. 1979
Length2:50
Songwriter(s)Traditional, arranged by Brian Wilson
Licensed audio
"Shortenin' Bread" on YouTube

"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.[5] 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.[6]

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").[7]
  • The Monkees' Micky Dolenz said that when he tripped on LSD with Wilson, John Lennon, and Nilsson, Wilson played "Shortenin' Bread" on piano "over and over again".[5]
  • 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!"[8]
  • 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."[9]

A number of Wilson-produced "Shortenin' Bread" and "Ding Dang" variations remain unreleased. Titles include "Clangin'" (recorded with Harry Nilsson), "Brian's Jam",[5] and "Rolling Up to Heaven".[10] 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.[11][12]

Personnel

Credits per Craig Slowinski, sourced from his L.A. (Light Album) sessionography.[13]

The Beach Boys

Additional musicians

  • Michael Andreas - saxophone
  • Joe Chemay - additional bass guitar
  • Bernard Fleischer - saxophone
  • Jim Guercio - bass guitar
  • Billy Hinsche - guitars
  • Chuck Kirkpatrick - guitar
  • Jimmy Lyon - lead guitar
  • Rod Novak - saxophone
  • Fred Selden - saxophone
  • Sterling Smith - Hammond organ

Other renditions

Version by Clayton McMichen
* 1933 – Paul Robeson

Music

Film

  • Willie the Whale (voiced by Nelson Eddy) sings the first verse and the chorus of the song in the animated short "The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met" featured in the Disney film Make Mine Music (1946).
  • Donald Duck sings the song while making pancakes in the animated short Three for Breakfast (1948) and you can hear him sing a short version of this in Lion Around (1950).
  • In the Looney Tunes cartoon Swooner Crooner (1944), the first of many crooning roosters who audition for Porky Pig is a caricature of Vaughn Monroe who sings the refrain.
  • In the Merrie Melodies cartoon Hare Tonic (1945), Elmer Fudd sings the song at the beginning of the cartoon but with the lyrics changed from "shortnin' bread" into "wabbit stew".
  • Rosa Rio played the song in her original Video Yesteryear score for The Wizard of Oz (1925) in the mid-1980s as a theme for the character of Snowball (Spencer Bell, credited as G. Howe Black). Some reviewers found this reinforced the racist portrayal of the character.
  • In the film Police Academy 4 (1987), the character Captain Harris is seen singing the song into his cane.
  • Similarities have been noted in the main theme for Driving Miss Daisy (1989).[18]
  • In the movie Trainspotting (1996), Renton's friends and family sing the song in a celebration after he avoids being jailed.
  • At the end of the credits in the movie Secret Window (2004), Johnny Depp is heard singing the song.
  • Chris Rock sings this at a funeral in the comedy Death at a Funeral (2010).
  • Rod Steiger sings a modified version, "Mama's little Joy Boy loves lobster, lobster" in the black comedy The Loved One (1965), when describing a nightmare he had involving his mother and lobsters.

Television

  • In the I Love Lucy episode "Ethel's Home Town" (1955), Ethel sings "Shortnin' Bread" while Lucy, Ricky, and Fred perform a comedy routine behind her.[19]
  • The Bullwinkle Show (1959-1964): Numerous characters sing this song in different contexts. In one Dudley Do-Right segment, "The Masked Ginny Lynne", Dudley begins leaping around and dancing while singing this song, as the opera singer renders everyone else inert with her soporific moan. One Fractured Fairy Tales retelling of "The Three Little Pigs" begins with three pig sisters receiving a singing telegram, to the tune of this song, telling them they have inherited a fortune.
  • The Banana Splits (1969): The "Tra La La" theme song uses a chorus derived from "Shortnin' Bread".
  • In 1984, the children's music trio Sharon, Lois & Bram performed this song in Season 1 of their hit TV show Sharon, Lois & Bram's Elephant Show.
  • In the 1985 Kidsongs video, "A Day at Old MacDonald's Farm", "Shortnin' Bread" is sung in a different way pertaining to eating breakfast.
  • In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Harley and Ivy", Harley Quinn hums the refrain in one scene while setting a table.
  • In the Ren & Stimpy episode, "I Love Chicken", Ren Höek sings the song whilst preparing a meal.
  • At the end of a The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episode, Will is seen singing the song while scrubbing the floor with his cousin as the end credits roll.
  • In the Tom & Jerry cartoon, "The Milky Waif" (1946), the tune of "Shortnin' Bread" is played when Jerry and Nibbles daub themselves with shoe polish and appear in blackface to confuse Tom.
  • In the Warner Bros. animated television series Animaniacs, this song is part of the regular soundtrack for the adventures of Yakko, Wakko, and Dot, and is played over and over again throughout the series.
  • In the episode "Terms of Endearment" on the adult comedy show Drawn Together, the character Foxxy Love sings a few verses of the refrain.

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. ↑ Eitel, The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley, p. 119.
  3. ↑ "Du Pree, Reese - Discography of American Historical Recordings".
  4. ↑ Perrow, "Songs and Rhymes from the South", p. 142: "from Tennessee mountain whites, 1912".
  5. 1 2 3 Chidester, Brian (7 March 2014). "Busy Doin' Somethin': Uncovering Brian Wilson's Lost Bedroom Tapes". Paste. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
  6. ↑ Beard, David (Spring 2007). "Ding Dang". Endless Summer Quarterly.
  7. ↑ George-Warren 2014, p. 124.
  8. ↑ Carlin 2006, p. 172.
  9. ↑ Music-News.com Newsdesk (5 July 2011). "Alice Cooper was too afraid to argue with Brian Wilson". MusicNewsWeb.
  10. ↑ Chidester, Brian (30 January 2014). "Brian Wilson's Secret Bedroom Tapes". LA Weekly. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
  11. ↑ "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.
  12. ↑ Lambert 2007, p. 316.
  13. ↑ Slowinski, Craig (Spring 2015). Beard, David (ed.). "THE BEACH BOYS' - L.A. (Light Album)". Endless Summer Quarterly Magazine. No. 109. Charlotte, North Carolina.
  14. ↑ Broven, John (2009). Record makers and breakers: voices of the independent rock 'n' roll pioneers. University of Illinois Press. pp. 363ff. ISBN 978-0-252-03290-5.
  15. ↑ "Compare Dave 'Baby' Cortez' 'The Happy Organ' with James Whitcomb Riley's 'Shortnin' Bread'". who sampled: Exploring the DNA of music. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
  16. ↑ "Paul Chaplain and his Emeralds". Billboard.com. Retrieved 31 May 2021.
  17. ↑ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Sittin' in a High Chair - by Hap Palmer - Baby Songs". YouTube.
  18. ↑ Bettencourt, Scott. "THE YEAR IN FILM MUSIC: 1989". Film Score Monthly. Retrieved 29 June 2014.
  19. ↑ Feldman, Leslie Dale (18 January 2019). The Political Theory of I Love Lucy: Speed It Up!. Lexington Books. p. 16. ISBN 978-1498541558. Retrieved 2 April 2020.

Bibliography

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