Shortnin' Bread

"Shortnin' Bread" (also spelled "Shortenin' Bread," "Short'nin' Bread," or "Sho'tnin' Bread") is a song written by James Whitcomb Riley in 1900. A folk version was published by E.C. Perrow in 1915. It is song number 4209 in the Roud Folk Song Index. Shortening bread refers to a fried batter bread, made of corn meal, flour, hot water, eggs, baking powder, milk and shortening.

Origins

"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]

1. ^ Eitel, The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley, p. 119.

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

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.^[1] 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

The Beach Boys version

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.^[2] 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."^[3] 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".^[2] 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!"^[4]

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.^[5] 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". ^[6] During sessions for The Beach Boys Love You, engineer Earle Mankey noted that "everybody who showed up got subjected to 'Ding Dang'."^[5]

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",^[2] and "Rolling Up to Heaven".^[7] A version was completed for the unreleased album Adult/Child in late 1977.^[8] This recording was developed from a 1973 session conducted with Wilson's girl group side-project American Spring.^[9]

Other renditions

In popular culture

Music

• 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").^[10][11]
• 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)
• 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 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.
• 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 song appeared on the Album 'Littlefolk' by artist Angie Who, and was a featured 'High Five' on Australia's Kinderling Radio.^[12]
• Jaromír Nohavica, the acclaimed Czech singer, has a version of the song with the sang tune entitled "Píjte vodu" (Drink Water), the chorus of which is "Drink Water, Drink Water, Drink Water and Don't Drink Rum."

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).
• 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).
• 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).
• 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).
• In the Season 4 I Love Lucy episode "Ethel's Home Town" (1955), 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 verses 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 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.
• In the The Loud House episode, "Linc or Swim", Lincoln and Lana sing the first verse of the song.

Videogames

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

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 .