Lyr Req: Short'nin' Bread

Subject: Paul in Maine
From: GUEST,paul gudde & Therese Martin
Date: 20 Jan 01 - 04:24 PM

Can't seem to find the words to the song "Mama's little baby loves shortning, shortning, mama's little baby loves shortning bread..." not even sure what the title is or if i am spelling this out right...can anyone help me? Thank you [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Paul in Maine
From: GUEST,winterbright
Date: 20 Jan 01 - 04:47 PM

Have you tried Rise Up Singing? I think they go: "(your beginning words are OK)"; they're the chorus (sing 2x); then: "2 little children lyin' in bed/ one of 'em sick, and the other 'most dead; call for the doctor, the doctor said - feed them children on shortnin' bread"; chorus. I've heard this done kinda black dialect, so 'mama" would be "manny". But check out Rise Up, I'm pretty sure it's in there.

Subject: Lyr Add: SHORT'NIN' BREAD
From: Sorcha
Date: 20 Jan 01 - 05:03 PM

If it's in the DT, I couldn't find it!!

SHORT'NIN' BREAD

Plantation Song
Written By: Unknown
Copyright Unknown

Put on the skillet,
Slip on the lid,
Mama's gonna make
Some short'nin' bread. That ain't all
She's gonna do,
Mama's gonna make
A little coffee, too.

Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin', short'nin',
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin' bread,
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin', short'nin',
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin' bread.

Three little children,
Lyin' in bed
Two were sick
And the other 'most dead
Sent for the doctor
And the doctor said,
"Give those children some
Short'nin' bread."

Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin', short'nin',
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin' bread,
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin', short'nin',
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin' bread.

Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin', short'nin',
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin' bread,
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin', short'nin',
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin' bread.

When those children,
Sick in bed,
Heard that talk
About short'nin' bread,
Popped up well
To dance and sing,
Skipped around and cut
The pigeon wing.

Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin', short'nin',
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin' bread,
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin', short'nin',
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin' bread.

Slip to the kitchen,
Slip up the led,
Filled my pockets full of
Short'nin' bread;
Stole the skillet,
Stole the led,
Stole the gal makin'
Short'nin' bread.

Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin', short'nin',
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin' bread,
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin', short'nin',
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin' bread.

Caught me with the skillet,
Caught me with the led,
Caught me with the gal makin'
Short'nin' bread;
Paid six dollars for the skillet,
Paid Six dollars for the led,
Spent six months in jail eatin'
Short'nin' bread.

Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin', short'nin',
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin' bread,
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin', short'nin',
Mama's little baby loves
Short'nin' bread.

from: http://www.danmansmusic.com/childrens/shortnin_bread.txt

Whew!! Lots more than I ever knew!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Paul in Maine
From: Sorcha
Date: 20 Jan 01 - 05:19 PM

And, Paul, if in future you need to make another request, you will get better response if you put the title of what you are looking for in the title of the Thread, OK?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shortnin Bread (from Paul in Maine)
From: GUEST,winterbright
Date: 21 Jan 01 - 04:39 PM

Yeah, Paul... It IS in Rise Up Singing, with ALL the verses. Nice to know about that site, too, Sorcha!

So Paul, where are you in Maine?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shortnin Bread (from Paul in Maine)
From: Gern
Date: 22 Jan 01 - 08:56 AM

The Freight Hoppers, no slaves to either tradition or sentimentality, sing: "I'm so glad the old hog's dead/ I got more shortening for my bread..."

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shortnin Bread (from Paul in Maine)
From: Ella who is Sooze
Date: 23 Jan 01 - 04:20 AM

oh my god... I can't stand this song... I always thought it was a short song.. but seeing all the lyrics above has made me dispare!

Oh dear....

Ella (all entirely personal reasons of course)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shortnin Bread (from Paul in Maine)
From: GUEST,CraigS
Date: 23 Jan 01 - 09:13 PM

Couldn't resist contributing the last verse of the Fats Waller version (B side of "My Very Good Friend the Milkman"):

Hey, delivery man, where you been? Oh, mercy, sure is a sin! Momma, momma, don't be bad - Do not show your big, fine ... Shortnin' bread

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shortnin Bread (from Paul in Maine)
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 Jan 01 - 01:14 AM

My sister has my mom and dad's original sheet music to this. Mom used to sing it to us when she'd be cooking, but I never heard so many verses. Thanks, Sorcha!

BTW, did I miss a thread name change? I saw "Shortnin Bread" in the title, Sorcha, was it not there earlier? Just wondering.

kat

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shortnin Bread (from Paul in Maine)
From: Sorcha
Date: 24 Jan 01 - 01:21 AM

Yea, almost at the same time I told Paul he would get more action if he put the title in the thread name, Sneaky Elf changed the thread name........

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shortnin Bread (from Paul in Maine)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 24 Jan 01 - 02:10 AM

Hi - you'll find other versions here (click) and here (click again) and here (click yet once more). It should be noted that the lyrics were first posted in this forum by the estimable Dick Greenhaus on April 21, 1997. He duly noted that the lyrics were "politically terrible."

-Joe Offer, who got his thread-renaming button back-

Subject: Lyr Add: SALTIN' BREAD (from Thomas W. Talley)
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Feb 02 - 08:02 PM

Lyr. Add: SALTIN' BREAD

I loves saltin', saltin' bread.
I loves saltin', saltin' bread.
Put on dat skillet, nev' mind de lead;
Case I'se gwineter cook dat saltin' bread;
Yes, ever since my mammy's been dead,
I'se been makin' an' cookin' dat saltin' bread.

I loves saltin', saltin' bread.
I loves saltin', saltin' bread.
You loves biscuit, butter an' fat?
I can dance Shiloh better 'an dat.
Does you turn 'round and shake yo' head?-
Well, I loves saltin', saltin' bread.

I loves saltin', saltin' bread.
I loves saltin', saltin' bread.
W'en yo' ax yo' mammy fer butter an' bread,
She don't give nothin' but a stick across yo' head.
On cracklin's, you say, you wants to git fed?
Well, I loves saltin', saltin' bread.

Saltin' bread is made from water-ground corn meal, a salt-rising bread. Short'ning bread is a bread mixed with bacon bits or bacon gravy (largely drippin's from bacon).
Neither one has anything to do with short bread.
Cracklin' bread is essentially the same as short'nin' bread. Do not confuse with cracklin's made from roasted or fried pork skin (best from shoulder).
Thomas W. Talley, 1949 (1991 new ed.), Negro Folk Rhymes, pp. 71-72.
@Negro @children @social song

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shortnin Bread (from Paul in Maine)
From: wysiwyg
Date: 11 Feb 02 - 09:53 PM

Oh dear, I've indexed these.

~S~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shortnin Bread (from Paul in Maine)
From: GUEST,Paul Mitchell
Date: 12 Feb 02 - 10:49 AM

Gern said: The Freight Hoppers, no slaves to either tradition or sentimentality, sing: "I'm so glad the old hog's dead/ I got more shortening for my bread..."

This line comes from the singing of Hub Mahaffey, singer and guitarist with the Dykes Magic City Trio, a great band from Tenn. who recorded in the 20's.

Another line from them is:

Going up to get a little shortnen', shortnen' Going up to get a little shortnen bread.

You can hear the 78 of this version, featuring John Dykes remarkable fiddling, at www.honkingduck.com (under the 78 link).Just look under D for Dykes and drop to the bottom of the page.

Paul Mitchell

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shortnin Bread (from Paul in Maine)
From: GUEST,Chicken Charlie
Date: 12 Feb 02 - 07:17 PM

Slight variant, but oh, so meaningful:

Chicken in the bread tray mighty good stuff;
Mama cook the chicken, but I never get enough,
So I crept to the winder, lift the "led,"
Fill my pockets with sho'tnin' bread.

Love the one about the old hog.

Ella: There cannot be "too many verses" to a folk song. At 2:30 AM when your fingers are terminally sore but you have consumed too much Jack and know you will get the whirlies if you try to lie down, you need motivation to keep breathing deeply. THAT is the real reason for the seventeen-minute version of Bad Man Stack o'Lee.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shortnin Bread (from Paul in Maine)
From: Uncle Jaque
Date: 12 Feb 02 - 11:26 PM

Hey, "Guest" Paul from Maine; Whareabouts in Maine are ye?
Yarmouth heare; bunch more Folkies around Portland town, and one or two to be found about Bath as well. If'n ye gits down this way, we'd love t' do some jammin, y'heah?!

Does anybody know the approximate vintage of "Shot'nin Bread"? I wonder if I'd be too out of line picking it on the ol' Minstrel banjo at a Civil-War reenactment.

And you think that "Shot'nin Bread" is "Un-PC"?; you oughtta see some of the old original "forbidden verses" of "Oh Susanna" by Stephen Foster!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shortnin Bread (from Paul in Maine)
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Feb 02 - 11:54 PM

Tale from White, American Negro Folk Songs:
A Negress being tried before Judge Crutchfield in Richmond, VA (1910s) for being intoxicated. The judge asked her what she did when she was drunk. She replied that she sang "Shortnin' bread." The judge ordered her to sing it. When she got down to the skillet, the judge sang:
"$5.00 for the skillet,
$5.00 for the lid,
$10.00 fine for the shortening bread."
The Trad. Ballad Index only dates the song to 1915 (collected from white singers). Probably not older than 1900.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Shortnin Bread (from Paul in Maine)
From: masato sakurai
Date: 13 Feb 02 - 04:25 AM

For more info, CLICK HERE (The Fiddler's Companion).
~Masato