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Shortnin' Bread
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Wikipedia article
"'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.Wade, Stephen. 'The Beautiful Music all Around Us: Field Recordings and the American Experience'. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2012. p. 93. 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 SongPieced Out", and wrote the first verse as:
The dialect rendered into common English would be:
The verse includes:
Another pair of verses may be later, and exist in several versions:
(In some versions there are two children instead of three - and the "other" either "bump'd his head" or "was dead". Neither of these quite scan. The children (or "chillun") were once referred to by one of several racist terms.
Other verses include:
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.Perrow, [https://archive.org/stream/jstor-534506/534506#page/n14/mode/1up "Songs and Rhymes from the South," p. 142]: "from Tennessee mountain whites, 1912". The folk version of the songas with Riley'sdoes 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:
==The Beach Boys version ==
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| writer = Traditional, arranged by Brian Wilson
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"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)'.
During the 1970s, principal songwriter Brian Wilson was reportedly obsessed with the song, recording 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 1970s. 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". During sessions for 'The Beach Boys Love You', engineer Earle Mankey commented that "everybody who showed up got subjected to 'Ding Dang'."
A significant number of "Ding Dang" and "Shortenin' Bread" permutations exist in the Beach Boys' tape vaults. Most of them are unreleased, with titles such as "Clangin'" (recorded with Harry Nilsson), "Brian's Jam", and "Rolling Up to Heaven". A version was completed for the unreleased album 'Adult/Child' in late 1977. This recording was developed from a 1973 session conducted with Wilson's girl group side-project American Spring.
Numerous anecdotes have been reported about Wilson's obsession with the song:
* Singer-songwriter Alex Chilton 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 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, as he quoted Wilson for an explanation: "I don't know, it's just the best song ever written."
Other renditions
* The Andrews Sisters
* Al Jolson
* Gid Tanner
* The Viscounts
* Sonny Terry, 'Sonny Terry's New Sound: The Jawharp in Blues and Folk Music' (1968)
* Lawrence Tibbett
* Fats Waller
* Dave Brubeck
* Frances Faye
* Taj Mahal (musician)
* Richard White
* 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
* 1982 Klaus Flouride
* 1981 The Kelly Family, 'Wonderful World!'
* 1990 The Cramps, 'Stay Sick'
* 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
In popular culture
Music
* The Unity Church sings "Every little cell in my body is healthy. Every little cell in my body is well." to the tune of "Shortnin' Bread." It appears in all three editions of the hymnal and was reportedly used by Myrtle Fillmore during her healing.* The tune for a significant portion of "The Happy Organ" (1959) 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").
* Bread and Butter by The Newbeats (1964) is also based on the "put on the skillet" melody. I Can't Believe What You Say (for Seeing What You Do) by Ike Turner (1964) shares this progression.
* The melody from the "put on the skillet" portion also forms the harmonic choruses of Little Bitty Pretty One by Thurston Harris and the Sharps (1957), The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana) by The Banana Splits (1968), and Buffalo Soldier by Bob Marley and the Wailers (1983).
* 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."
* Paul Chaplain and his Emeralds took a rock version of the song to No. 82 in the Hot 100 in August 1962.
* The chorus to the song is used as a melody in the song "Pachuco Cadaver" on 'Trout Mask Replica' by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band.
* The 1994 song "Deuces Are Wild" by 'Aerosmith' features the line "Mama's little baby loves shortnin' bread" in the lyrics.
*Hap Palmer wrote a song "Sittin' in a High Chair" for his 1984 album 'BabySong' while using the music to adapt it. A video for the song shows a mama orangutan feeding her baby.Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211205/EQ4R3hS2xlM Ghostarchive] and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20180505150944/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQ4R3hS2xlM&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]:
*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.
Film
* In the Looney Tune 'Hare Tonic' (1945), Elmer Fudd sings the song at the beginning of the cartoon but with the lyrics changed from "shortnin' bread" into "rabbit stew".* Nelson Eddy, as Willie the Operatic Whale, sings in the Disney animated feature 'Make Mine Music' (1946).
* 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).
* 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
* Willie the Whale 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
* In the Warner Bros. cartoon, 'Hare Tonic' (1945), Elmer and Bugs take turns singing the song, replacing "shortnin' bread" with "wabbit stew".
* 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.
* '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 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) "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 '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 '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 Warner Brothers' '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
Bibliography
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*Eitel, Edmund Henry (ed.) 'The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley', Vol 5. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrell Company (1913).
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*Perrow, E.C. "Songs and Rhymes from the South." 'The Journal of American Folklore', 28:108 (April - Jun. 1915) 129190.
* 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. "[http://www.csufresno.edu/folklore/ballads/R255.html Shortenin' Bread]". 'The Traditional Ballad Index: An Annotated Bibliography of the Folk Songs of the English-Speaking World'. Hosted by [http://www.csufresno.edu/folklore/ California State University, Fresno, Folklore], 2007.
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