Music / That Lucky Old Sun

That Lucky Old Sun is an album by American artist Brian Wilson. Released in 2008 and fully produced by Brian, it also features lyrics penned by Wilson's long time collaborator Van Dyke Parks.

It is a concept album centered on Southern California, the area where Brian grew up as a Beach Boy. "That Lucky Old Sun" is originally a song of the late fourties and serves as a leitmotif of the album while other songs like "Midnight's Another Day" and "Going Home" talk about Brian's life. Two old outtakes were used for the album: "Going Home" (originally recorded during The Paley Sessions) and Can't Wait Too Long (originally recorded for The Beach Boys' Wild Honey).

Tracklist:

1. "That Lucky Old Sun"
2. "Morning Beat"
3. "Room With A View"
4. "Good Kind Of Love"
5. "Forever She'll Be My Surfer Girl"
6. "Venice Beach"
7. "Live Let Live / That Lucky Old Sun (Reprise)"
8. "Mexican Girl"
9. "Cinco De Mayo"
10. "California Role / That Lucky Old Sun (Reprise)"
11. "Between Pictures"
12. "Oxygen To The Brain"
13. "Can't Wait Too Long"
14. "Midnight's Another Day"
15. "That Lucky Old Sun (Reprise)"
16. "Going Home"
17. "Southern California"

Those lucky old tropes:

• Album Title Drop: Many times throughout the album.
• Boxed Set: Released the following year and containing music sheets, lithographies by Peter Blake (the art director of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band's cover who also collaborated with Brian on Gettin' In Over My Head'') and a VIP Pass for Brian's concerts dedicated to that album.
• Call-Back: "Southern California" ends the album with the lyrics "Maumamayama glory, Hallelujah" which can also be heard on the second track "Morning Beat".
• Cerebus Call-Back: The soft voices that Brian hears in "Morning Beat" become beautiful on "Forever She'll Be My Surfer Girl" but become hard towards him on "Midnight's Another Day".
• Cover Version: "That Lucky Old Sun" is originally a hit song from 1949.
• Double Meaning: "Room With A View" has the lyrics: "Meet the crack of dawn / A freeway starts to roll". While it can mean that life has its own flow, it also references the many freeways in Los Angeles.
• Fading into the Next Song: Between each track.
• Gratuitous Spanish: On "Mexican Girl" and "Cinco De Mayo".
• Jaded Washout: "Venice Beach"
  There's an old smudge of a beatnik by the bay
  Looking like a dog who's had his day
  Like a dream he drifts away
• Leitmotif: The cover of the 1949 song "That Lucky Old Sun" reappears throughout the album, lyrically or instrumentally.
• Limited Lyrics Song: "Can't Wait Too Long":
  Been Way Too Long
  Been Way Too Long
  • The reprise of "That Lucky Old Sun" near the end of the album:
  Ooh, lucky old sun
  Ahh, lucky old sun
  That lucky old sun
  That lucky old sun
  He rolls around heaven all day
• Lyrical Cold Open: "That Lucky Old Sun"
• Location Song: "Venice Beach" and "Southern California" (the former being located in the latter).
• The Maker: "Live Let Live"
  I got a notion we come from the ocean and
  God Almighty passed his hands on the water
• Mythology Gag: "Forever She'll Be My Surfer Girl" is about the year where Brian came up with classic Beach Boys ballad.
  • "Going Home" features the "Shortenin' Bread riff", named in reference to the nursery rhyme which was also an obsession of Brian from the seventies to today.
• Pep-Talk Song: "California Role"
  If there’s a roll in your heart, and a rock in your soul
  If you miss your shot
  It doesn’t mean you won’t reach your goal
• Shout-Out: To William Shakespeare on "Between Pictures"
  I mean, are we all not actors?
  And the whole wide world our stage?
  • Brian also references his two brothers on "Southern California".
  I had this dream
  Singing with my brothers
  In harmony, supporting each other
• Special Guest: Van Dyke Parks co-wrote the narrative tracks of the album.
• Spicy Latina: "Mexican Girl"
  Hey, bonita muchacha
  Don't you know that I want ya?
  Hey, bonita muchacha
  I need to know that I got ya
• Spoken Word in Music: Four tracks serve as interlude narratives and showcase Brian speaking in poetry (co-written by Van Dyke Parks).
• Stop and Go: "Morning Beat"
• Symbolic Baptism: "That Lucky Old Sun"
  Show me that river
  Take me across
  Wash all my troubles away
• There's No Place Like Home: "Going Home"
  I'm going home, I'm going home
  Back to the place where I belong
• Updated Re Release: The following year of its release, That Lucky Old Sun was also sold as a boxset containing music sheets, lithograpies and a VIP pass for the album's tour.