Your Dad Did

My friend Harold made these mix tapes. Sick tapes. Wonderfully sick tapes.

You become a father, and so Harold starts you off sweetly enough, Loudon Wainwright III warning: "Be careful there's a baby in the house."

Things develop from there.

It doesn't take many songs of sacrifice and wonder to get from that simple caution to Was Not Was screaming: "Hello, Dad. I'm in Jail. Jail! Jail! Jail!"

Well, that's the beauty part.

At this hour, on this Father's Day, my Dad's up. My sons are asleep. And I'm somewhere in the middle. Not sure what the day holds, but here's today's metro column.

For video, we go from a favorite from Harold's now-20-year-old-mix tape. It's John Hiatt and that 80s hair live in Germany. (No Ry Cooder, but I'll take Sonny Landreth on slide)

Oh Happy Day.