Musical #tbt: December 6

Welcome to throwback Thursday, Culture Capital style. Every Thursday we’ll remind you of some transcendent tune or magical musical happening from that day way back in yester-year. Today we have two. It’s Thursday, December 6, 2018. #tbt

December 6, 1920

Legendary jazz pianist, composer and band leader, Dave Brubeck (1920-2012), was born today in 1920. Brubeck founded the Dave Brubeck Quartet, who with the help of composer and saxophonist Paul Desmond gave us meter-magic standards. Think Blue Rondo a la Turk, The Duke, and the timeless Take Five, the first jazz instrumental to sell over 1 million copies.

December 6, 1975

Today in 1975, international reports sang the story of Charles Boykin, the 25 year old associate pastor and youth minister of Tallahassee’s Lakewood Baptist Church who organized the burning of roughly $2,200 (just over $10,000 today) of Elton John and Rolling Stones records. The good Rev. Boykin cited a survey which he claimed read, "of 1,000 girls who became pregnant out of wedlock, 984 committed fornication while rock music was being played."

When questioned about his sources, Rev. Boykin changed his story multiple times. He first pointed to a 1968 Time magazine issue. Then, when interviewed by Mike Royko of the Chicago Daily News, Rev. Boykin corrected his source, describing it as “sort of like a gallup poll of unwed mothers” by “This man. He's from West Virginia. He stopped in our church one day and gave us the statistics...He’s an evangelist. He travels all the time.” Neither source, not Time magazine nor the gallup-polling evangelist, could be corroborated. Burn, baby, burn.