"Shortnin' Bread" | |
---|---|
Song | |
Written | c. 1890s |
Published | 1900 |
Songwriter(s) | James Whitcomb Riley |
"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, [1] 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.
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 a plantation song, in the minstrel or coon song traditions popular at the time. [2] [3]
Riley titled the song "A Short'nin' Bread Song—Pieced Out", and wrote the first verse as:
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 gwiner cook som short'nin' bread [4]
The dialect rendered into common English would be:
Fetch that dough, from the kitchen shed
Rake those coals out, hot and red
Put on the oven and put on the lid
Mommy's going to cook some 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
Another pair of verses may be later, and exist in several versions:
Three little children, lying in bed
Two was sick and the other 'most dead
Send for the doctor and the doctor said
"feed them children on short'nin' bread"
When those children, sick in bed,
heard that talk 'bout short'nin' bread.
They popped up well, to dance and sing,
skipping around and cut the pigeon wing.
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.[ clarification needed ] The children (or "chillun") were once referred to by one of several racist terms.
Other verses include:
Pull out the skillet, pull out the led,
Mama's gonna make a little short'nin' bread
That ain't all she's gonna do,
Mama's gonna make a little coffee too
I slipped to the kitchen, slipped on the led,
slipped my pockets full of short'nin' bread.
I stole the skillet, I stole the led,
I stole the girl who makes short'nin' bread
They caught me with the skillet, They caught me with the led,
They caught me with the girl who makes short'nin' bread.
I paid six dollars for the skillet, six dollars for the led,
Spent six months in jail eating short'nin' bread.
Reese DuPree composed a version recorded in 1927. [5]
Titled "Shortened Bread", E. C. Perrow published the first folk version of this song in 1915, which he collected from East Tennessee in 1912. [6] 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 (rpt.)
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