Shortnin' Bread

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.

[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.

[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.

The band's principal songwriter Brian Wilson was reportedly obsessed with the song, having recorded more than a dozen versions of the tune.

[30] Numerous anecdotes have been reported about Wilson's obsession with the song: A number of Wilson-produced "Shortenin' Bread" and "Ding Dang" variations remain unreleased.