I'm still in the beginning stages of parenthood; my son will be one year old next month. But he is being raised with the stories and songs and poems that my husband and I hold dear from our own childhoods. We started a collection of children's books before he was even a twinkle in our eyes, and he hears all the music we like. Currently, he dances to Solas and Juluka (Irish and South African bands), chills out to Jeff Warner and Jeff Davis and Bill Harley. I was surrounded by non-top-40 music as I grew up, and my children will be too.

I admit, my parents did not teach me many of the "classics" either, but I learned many of them through early mainstream education. What my parents gave me, which I'm sure Joe also gave to his kids, was a knowledge of and interest in things outside the mainstream, and enquiring minds. Wait and see what happens when they have kids of their own. You may be surprised; you may discover them singing 1960s labor party songs over the cradle.