Shortnin' Bread

"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

File:"Short'nin' Bread", 1928.png

1928 sheet music cover for an arrangement of "Short'nin' Bread" by Jacques Wolfe.

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 an African-American 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:

The dialect rendered into common English would be:

The verse includes: Template:Poemquote

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". The first doesn't quite scan. The children (or "chillun") were once referred to by one of several racist terms.

Other verses include: Template:Poemquote

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 is: Template:Poemquote

Other renditions

File:OldJoeClark-PrettyLittleWidder-ShorteninBread.gif

Version by Clayton McMichen

• 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").Template:Sfn

• 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 Wilson-led singalong of "Shortenin' Bread", leading Pop to flee the room proclaiming, "I gotta get out of here, man. This guy is nuts!"Template:Sfn

• Musician Alice Cooper recalled that Wilson considered "Shortenin' 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.Template:Sfn

Bibliography

• Eitel, Edmund Henry (ed.) The Complete Works of James Whitcomb Riley, Vol 5. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company (1913).
• 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)