Weirdly into Brian Wilson's obsession with Shortnin' Bread. I'm not an expert on his music or anything, I'm just some dude who listened to a lot of Beach Boys music growing up because of my dad. I do like to read through his wikipedia page every now and then, which means I periodically get reminded of all of this. Here's the basic rundown/highlights:
The wikipedia page on the song, and this quote in particular:
Musician Alice Cooper recalled that Wilson considered "Shortnin' 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."
Also this one:
Biographer Peter Ames Carlin wrote that Elton John and Iggy Pop were 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!"
This article about his lost tapes from the 70's, including "versions of “Ding Dang” and “Short’nin Bread” too numerous to count."
Mickey Dolenz of the Monkees was another ‘70s L.A. hellraiser who seems to have had a “Short’nin’ Bread” experience with Brian Wilson. Dolenz wrote about a BW/John Lennon/Harry Nilsson meeting in his 1993 autobiography, I’m a Believer, wherein Dolenz has the quartet taking acid at his beach house in Malibu. Accordingly, Wilson plays the same note on the piano over and over; Lennon just stares into the swimming pool. Though no tape exists from this moonlit affair, according to Monkees archivist Andrew Sandoval, Dolenz does have a tape of Wilson and Nilsson jamming together on “Clangin’,” another BW variation on “Short’nin’ Bread.”
This youtube video that prompted me to make this post because I found it today and already watched it several times. It combines all the versions of the song the creator could find, as well as other songs he wrote or was involved in that are influenced by Shortnin Bread, with a detailed description full of timestamps such as "The "Bread" portions of "Goin' Home"" and "The tag to "No Wrong Notes in Heaven" a very groovy song written by Scott Bennet of Brian's band, with some input from Brian (no prizes on what his contribution is)"
Yeah I'm not going anywhere in particular with this, just thought this was kinda neat 🤷♂️