Shortnin' Bread
| "Shortnin' Bread" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| Written | 1900 |
| Writer(s) | James Whitcomb Riley |
| "Shortenin' Bread" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by The Beach Boys from the album L.A. (Light Album) | ||||
| Released | March 19, 1979 | |||
| Recorded | 1970s | |||
| Length | 2:50 | |||
| Writer(s) | Traditional, arranged by Brian Wilson | |||
| L.A. (Light Album) track listing | ||||
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| 10 tracks |
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"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.
"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
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
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 goes:
Mammy's little baby loves short'nin', short'nin'
Mammy's little baby loves short'nin' bread
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.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."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".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!"
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Wikipedia