Shortnin' Bread

"Shortnin' Bread" (also spelled "Shortenin' Bread," "Short'nin' Bread," or "Sho'tnin' Bread") (Roud 4209) is a song by James Whitcomb Riley.

History

"Shortnin' Bread" is often thought of as a traditional plantation song. However the first version was written by white poet James Whitcomb Riley in 1900. His song was named "A Short'nin' Bread Song—Pieced Out", the chorus of which is:

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 gwineter cook som short'nin' bread.^[1]

Verse

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;

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.^[2] 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

Shortening bread is a fried batter bread, the ingredients of which include corn meal, flour, hot water, eggs, baking powder, milk and shortening.

In popular culture

Music

• The tune for a significant portion of "The Happy Organ" bears a strong resemblance to the "Shortnin' Bread" tune (the portion under "put on the skillet, slip on the lid, mammy's gonna make us some shortnin' bread").^[3][4]
• On 14 October 1960, Paul Chaplain and his Emeralds' version became the first #1 record on the WLS Silver Dollar Survey.^[5]
• In the Elvis Presley song "Clambake," "Shortnin' Bread" is paraphrased as "Mama's little baby loves clambake clambake, mama's little baby loves clambake too."
• Allan Sherman did a parody of the song as "Mammy's Little Baby loves Matzoh Balls", as part of the medley of songs entitled "Schticks and Stones" taken from the album, My Son, the Folk Singer (1962)
• In 1963 Mississippi John Hurt recorded the song for Library of Congress Archive of American Folk Song in Washington D.C.. It is available on the album D.C. Blues: Library of Congress Recordings.
• The 28-minute title track to Charles Mingus's Cumbia & Jazz Fusion album, merges a theme played on reeds and Latin percussion, full-on big-band passages, and a burlesque of "Shortnin' Bread" that climaxes in cries of "Freedom! Freedom!"
• The chorus to the song is used as a medley in the song "Pachuco Cadaver" on Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band
• A version of this song referring to rhubarb pie is used as the jingle of a fictional bakery in A Prairie Home Companion.
• The Kelly Family recorded the song for their 1981 album Wonderful World. Their live version is included on 1988 album Live. They re-recorded it for 2005 album Hope.
• The Cramps have also made a cover of this song in 1990, featured on the Stay Sick album.
• The 1994 song Deuces Are Wild by Aerosmith features the line "Mammy's little baby loves short'nin' bread" in the lyrics.
• The Ready Men recorded a garage rock cover of this song, which was featured on the Pebbles, Volume 4 compilation.
• A later version was recorded by the country rock band The Tractors, on their 1998 album Farmers in a Changing World. Their version reached #57 on the Hot Country Songs chart.
• In 2002, Laurie Berkner released this song in her album, Under a Shady Tree.
• Gid Tanner and the singer Lawrence Tibbett recorded popular versions of the song, as did Al Jolson and The Andrews Sisters. Another version was featured in the 1937 film Maytime, as sung by Nelson Eddy.
• Hap Palmer wrote a song "Sittin' in a High Chair" for "BabySong" while using the music to adapt it.
• Johnny Cash mentioned the line "Mama's little baby loves shortnin' bread" in the Mark O'Connor song "The Devil Comes Back To Georgia", a continuation of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" and a collaboration with Marty Stuart, Travis Tritt, and Charlie Daniels.
• The bass player for the Punk band Dead Kennedys, Klaus Flouride, recorded a version for his solo single "Shortnin' Bread" /"The Drowning Cowboy" in 1982.^[6]
• A number of other versions have been recorded by the likes of Sonny Terry, Edwin Hubbard, Fats Waller, The Muskrat Ramblers, Dave Brubeck, Peter Fand, Frances Faye, Boots Brown and His Blockbusters, Taj Mahal, The Three Pieces, The Viscounts, Doug Beavers Orchestra, The Ready Men, Henry Whitter, Dykes Magic City Trio, Earl Johnson & His Dixie Entertainers , Tweedy Brothers, Reeves White County Ramblers, Cherokee Ramblers, Clayton McMichen, Emma Jane Davis, Ora Dell Graham, George James, Billie James Levi, Celina Lewis, Tom McKinney, Ruby Smith, Henry Truvillion, and Bobby Leecan.

Film

• A choral version of the song was performed by the Robert Mitchell Choir School of Hollywood in the Academy Award nominated short "Forty Boys and a Song" (1941).
• Nelson Eddy, as Willie the Operatic Whale, sings in the Disney animated feature Make Mine Music (1946).
• In the film Police Academy 4 (1987), the character Captain Harris is seen singing the song into his cane.
• 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).

Television

• Donald Duck sings the song while making pancakes in the animated short Three for Breakfast (1948).
• In the Season 4 I Love Lucy episode "Ethel's Home Town", Ethel Mertz (Vivian Vance) performs the song onstage.
• There is a scene in Here's Lucy where Uncle Harry (Gale Gordon) puts a tape recorder in front of Lucy's desk and she types his dications whenever he's not at work. But after Lucy (Lucille Ball) leaves, Uncle Harry goes over to her desk and sings the two verse of "Shortnin' Bread".
• In the Warner Bros. cartoon, Hare Tonic (1945), Elmer and Bugs take turns singing the song, replacing "shortnin' bread" with "wabbit stew".
• 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 Ren & Stimpy episode, "I Love Chicken", Ren Hoek 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 Drawn together episode, "Terms of Endearment", Foxxy Love sings the song while cooking, after a tumor has put pressure on "the part of her brain that controls negative stereotypical behavior".
• In October of 2013, during the Italian version of X Factor, "Shortnin' bread" was sung by Violetta Zironi, a girl who was then chosen to participate in the popular TV program.
• The most recent Lalaloopsy commercial, advertising the Lalaloopsy Babies, has a jingle that shares this tune.

Videogames

• At the end of a trailer titled "Bad World" for the game Battlefield: Bad Company Haggard and Sweetwater sing the song.

The Beach Boys

The song was recorded by the American rock band the Beach Boys numerous times. Only one version has seen official release as a track on their 1979 album L.A. (Light Album).

During the 1970s, their principal songwriter Brian Wilson was reportedly obsessed with the song, recording more than a dozen versions of the tune.^[7] Alex Chilton recalls receiving middle-of-the-night phone calls from Wilson asking him to sing on a recording of "Shortenin' Bread". Chilton remembers: "He was telling me I have the perfect voice for it."^[8] Micky Dolenz wrote of in his autobiography that while tripping on LSD with Wilson, John Lennon, and Harry Nilsson, he remembers Wilson playing "Shortenin' Bread" on piano "over and over again".^[7] Elton John and Iggy Pop were mutually 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!"^[9]

Beach Boy Al Jardine speculates that Wilson's obsession with the song may have begun after he had co-written the song "Ding Dang" with Roger McGuinn in the early 1970s.^[10] McGuinn explained that Wilson had one day come to his house for amphetamines while escaping from his therapist. After McGuinn spent some time crafting "Ding Dang" with Wilson, he went to bed. The next day, he awoke to Wilson, still awake, and still playing "Ding Dang" on piano. Only one lyric was ever written: "I love a girl and I love her madly / I treat her so fine but she treats me so badly."^[11] During sessions for The Beach Boys Love You, engineer Earle Mankey noted that "everybody who showed up got subjected to 'Ding Dang'."^[10]

Innumerable permutations of Wilson's "Ding Dang" and "Shortenin' Bread" 1-to-4-up piano riff exist on studio tape, most of them unreleased with titles such as "Clangin'" (recorded with Harry Nilsson), "Brian's Jam",^[7] and "Rolling Up to Heaven".^[12] A version was completed for the unreleased album Adult/Child in late 1977.^[13] This recording was developed from a 1973 session conducted with Wilson's girl group side-project American Spring.^[14]

References

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-Merrell 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.
• 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

• - 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 .