Mangled Idiom?
From the Wall Street Journal, Wednesday February 2, 2005, page C1 in an article entitled "GM Bond Worries Fade With Some Magic From Lehman":
"Did it become more profitable? Did its debt melt away? No, not that. Instead, Lehman Brothers soothed the bond market's savage breast."
Sorry, no, that isn't a typo. If you are like many people (myself included) you always heard it phrased something like this:
"Music can soothe the savage beast."
Kudos to WSJ for getting it right. Here is the full quote from William Congreve:
"Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast,
To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak."
Add that to my collection of mental corrections (I'm still getting used to "taking" decisions instead of "making" them).
I suspect that the conversion from "breast" to "beast" was a product of the FCC in the fifties and sixties. The first time I heard it was in a Looney Toons cartoon.