I once played Spanky and Our Gang's "Give a Damn" for a Training Union session (Training Union is the Southern Baptist Sunday Night service for young people ~ a rough equivalent of MYF in the Methodist Church; a bit freer and looser than Baptist morning Sunday School (which is to say not very free or loose). I forget the details, but some of us asked to play a popular song for the program, and I chose "Give a Damn" (partly for shock value, but mainly because of the message of social concern: "And it might begin to reach you, how to give a damn about your fellow man"). I don't remember the response (the song itself isn't particularly revolutionary--Spanky and Our Gang, for goodness sake), but I don't think anyone was offended OR moved to resolve social problems either. This is the Southern Baptist denomination after all.

The most shocking music performance during my youth there happened in the Sunday morning worship service. Our organist was a quiet, introverted fellow (horn rim glasses, lived with his elderly mother, and appropriately named Earnest) who accompanied the congregation and choir ably but invisibly on what was probably a very impressive pipe organ musically, but more importantly it looked expensive. When he played during the offering, the music was lugubriously sedate and wouldn't have been out of place at a funeral home, which is appropriate because Baptists don't like to give money to the church or any other higher calling. Occasionally, he allowed to play a solo as the musical worship instead of the usual bland choral number--maybe some polite classical piece by Bach, I don't remember. But one performance I'll never forget. Earnest chose a medley by modern Dutch composers. It wasn't exactly Stockhausen, more like Messiaen maybe, but it shocked the congregation as much as if Keith Emerson had sneaked in to play a few numbers from "Tarkus." When Earnest cut loose and played that startling medley, he gained at least one fan for life.