Ah, parents…..ah, Dad.

We could be here for days talking about the impact that my parents have had and continue to have in my life.

But since it’s Father’s Day, I thought I would spend a moment thinking about Dad. We’re going to have breakfast a bit later this morning to have a “kinda celebration” of the day. After a few years of my parents being out of state, they’ve been back in town for the past year, allowing us the opportunity to get together with a simple phone call, which is cool.

I can think of many things that Dad (and Mom) have contributed to my world, and one of the most important things that they brought to my world was music. Dad opened his record collection to me at a time that I must have been about eight or nine years old. At that point, he shared a few very important albums with me, introducing me to groups that are cornerstones of my musical love.

The Beach Boys – Dad shared two albums in particular: The Beach Boys – Best of the Beach Boys, and The Beach Boys’ Christmas Album. I smiled when I read about the Smithereens, and their goal to make a Christmas album that would be classic in the vein of albums like the Beach Boys’ Christmas Album. Anyone that has heard the Beach Boys album certainly will know what the Smithereens were trying to achieve was a lofty goal.

The Beach Boys Christmas Album stands perfect in the class when I think of holiday albums – classic holiday favorites mixed with Beach Boy originals that would become classics as well.

The Beatles – When I heard The Beatles for the first time, a love began that would find me exploring the music of the Beatles collectively and individually through the years. I heard several albums at the time, and Revolver is the first album that I remember hearing from any group that was perfect from head to toe. I’m not sure that my dad had every album from the Beatles, but he certainly had enough of them to properly introduce me to the basics that I needed to be properly educated as a young Beatles fan.

Many years later, we would see Paul McCartney in his return to live performance when his tour stopped at Municipal Stadium here in Cleveland in 1990. On the solo side, McCartney has always been the favorite, followed by George (Cloud Nine,) and John.

Bill Cosby – Bill Cosby is a Very Funny Fellow Right! This album was my introduction to Bill Cosby, and the “comedy album.” In the “comedy album” category, I would later hear albums from Vaughn Meader (The First Family) and Bob Newhart. On my own, I would discover Cheech and Chong, and Steve Martin (Comedy is NOT Pretty.) Dad is always there on the scene with a joke, sometimes a joke that we have heard many times at many social gatherings. And of course we always make sure he knows how MANY times we have heard a particular joke.

Dad taught me proper care of a vinyl record, but I was a kid, so my early record collection took a bit of abuse. Thanks to Dad though, the lesson eventually sunk in, and for many years, I was quite manic about the care of my collection, something which extended digitally to CDs.

These days, I’ve managed to relax just a bit, but I certainly understood a bit of the anxiety that my dad felt having a little kid around his record collection at the point that I had kids within 50 feet of my own collection. As long as you have your priorities properly placed, you eventually realize that there are some things that are more important than your CD collection.

Dad helped me to assemble my first stereo setup, showing me how to shop for quality, and how to purchase stereo components that would be part of my collection for years – stuff that was built to last. And in fact, with the exception of a few years, my Sony speakers have been my main speakers for nearly 20 years now.

Dad continues to be the shopping expert, ready at a moment’s notice to join the quest for my next hi-fi purchase, helping out most recently when I was on the hunt for a hi-def television.

I’ve also gotten a chance to return the favor in recent years – for instance, helping him find a DVD player to match the one that I had gotten. And more recently, setting up his stereo system when my parents moved back to Ohio last year – not bad, considering that as a kid he wouldn’t have let me anywhere NEAR the wires running out of the back of his stereo!

On this Father’s Day, I am glad to have Dad here with me, in good health. We’ve both come through waters of life that have been rough at times. We’ve both weathered the storm, and come away from it stronger, and wiser.

The most important thing (well, one of the big ones anyway) that my parents ever did for me, is to support me and let me know that they believed in me and the things that I wanted to do. I wanted to make a living through music, and though it might have seemed crazy to them, they were and are behind me. As you grow up and get older, you realize that not everyone is fortunate enough to have that kind of support.

Happy Father’s Day, everyone!

Bill Cosby – Noah