NEW STUDIO ALBUM, `THAT LUCKY OLD SUN,' TO BE RELEASED SEPTEMBER 2
ON CD, DELUXE CD/DVD, LIMITED EDITION VINYL & DIGITALLY

"You don't have to climb the Capitol tower, or play the Hollywood
Bowl, if there's a roll in your heart, and a rock in your soul…"
(lyrics from That Lucky Old Sun's " California Role")

Hollywood, California – May 19, 2008 - He is one of popular music's
most deeply revered figures, a legendary writer, producer, arranger
and performer of some of the most cherished music in rock history.
Indeed, it is no exaggeration to call Brian Wilson one of the most
gifted and influential pop composers of the last 50 years. Today,
Wilson announces his return to Capitol Records / EMI, his original
label home. Wilson's new studio recording, That Lucky Old Sun, will
be released by Capitol/EMI on CD, CD/DVD, limited edition vinyl and
digitally on September 2 (September 1 internationally) .

Brian Wilson's return to Capitol Records / EMI, where The Beach Boys
caught their first hit wave with the 1962 classic, "Surfin'
Safari/409," is a triumphant homecoming for one of the world's most
gifted and beloved musical talents.

"I'm thrilled to be back home with Capitol, and I'm looking forward
to sharing That Lucky Old Sun with everyone," says Brian
Wilson. "This music is really special to me."

"We are delighted to be working with Brian Wilson for his new album,
That Lucky Old Sun," says Guy Hands, Executive Chairman of EMI
Music. "We all remember the feeling we got when we first heard The
Beach Boys' music. My particular favorite classic is 'Surfer Girl.'
It always reminds me of driving an open top car down the Pacific
Coast Highway from Santa Barbara to Malibu . Brian Wilson is an
iconic talent with enormous musical influence all over the world and
we are very proud to be representing him."

A musical love letter from Southern California , That Lucky Old Sun
shimmers with sun-dappled choruses and arrangements that swell and
swirl as if carried by the Pacific tides. One of the
songs, "Midnight's Another Day," has been described by MOJO magazine
as "glorious." The album is narrated in transitional interludes
spoken by Wilson as `That Lucky Old Sun,' the storyteller. The
narratives, cameos on life and the heartbeat of Los Angeles , propel
the album's musical story.

Last summer, Wilson found himself singing the 1949 classic
song, "That Lucky Old Sun," which became the inspiration for a
unique approach to what would become his next studio release. He
bought Louis Armstrong's version of the track and was inspired to
collaborate lyrically with his band mate Scott Bennett, and with Van
Dyke Parks, his old `sidekick,' to create vibrant spoken narratives.
Wilson debuted That Lucky Old Sun at London 's Royal Festival Hall
in September 2007 in a series of six sold-out and critically-
acclaime d concert performances celebrating the theatre's
restoration.

Wilson describes That Lucky Old Sun as an "interwoven series
of `rounds' with interspersed spoken word," and as an
autobiographical travelogue of sorts. The new studio album is
produced by Wilson and was created with his acclaimed band at
Capitol Studios in Hollywood , where he first recorded in 1962.

The new release is the dawning of a new California morning for Brian
Wilson, continuing the awe-inspiring concept album journey that he
first began four decades ago. Wilson 's songwriting, arranging and
producing talents came together in harmonious glory for The Beach
Boys' 1966 classic, Pet Sounds, and have continued to evolve during
his solo career, highlighted by his 2004 critically acclaimed Brian
Wilson Presents SMiLE. Lyrically and in Wilson 's incomparably lush,
evocative arrangements, That Lucky Old Sun adds a new chapter to
Wilson 's conceptual presentations, reaching ever higher with his
vibrant and moving autobiographical storytelling and intricate
harmonies.

Following numerous nominations, Wilson won a well-deserved Grammy
Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance (2004) for "Mrs.
O'Leary's Cow" and he was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame in
2006. Last December, he was feted as a leading cultural icon by The
Kennedy Center Honors alongside Diana Ross, Martin Scorsese, Steve
Martin and Leon Fleisher.

Brian Wilson and his band will perform a number of his classic hits
and compositions at select North American and UK concerts this
summer.

---

[bigred]Standard Edition (CD Only)[/bigred]



A musical love letter from Southern California, [title]That Lucky Old Sun[/title] continues the awe-inspiring concept album journey that Brian Wilson first began with The Beach Boys' 1966 classic, Pet Sounds & has continued to evolve during his solo career, highlighted by his 2004 critically-acclaimed Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE. The four transitional narratives, co-written with Van Dyke Parks and spoken by Wilson, offer cameos on life and the heartbeat of Los Angeles which propels the album's musical story.

1. That Lucky Old Sun
2. Morning Beat
3. Room With A View (narrative)
4. Good Kind Of Love
5. Forever My Surfer Girl
6. Venice Beach (narrative)
7. Live Let Live
8. Mexican Girl
9. Cinco de Mayo (narrative)
10. California Role
11. Between Pictures (narrative)
12. Oxygen To The Brain
13. Been Too Long
14. Midnight's Another Day
15. Lucky Old Sun Reprise
16. Goin' Home
17. Southern California
18. Roll-Around Heaven Reprise

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001BN732I/?tag=imwan-20

---

[bigred]Limited Edition (CD+DVD)[/bigred]





Limited Edition CD/DVD features exclusive "making of" with bonus video content. (DVD total run time: 26:00)

Bonus DVD contains:
1. Chapter 1: Morning Beat - Making Of The Album
2. Chapter 1: Our Prayer - Making Of The Album
3. Chapter 1: That Lucky Old Sun - Making Of The Album
4. Chapter 1: California Role - Making Of The Album
5. Chapter 1: Midnight's Another Day - Making Of The Album
6. Chapter 1: Southern California - Making Of The Album
7. Chapter 1: Surfin' - Making Of The Album
8. Chapter 1: Oxygen To The Brain - Making Of The Album
9. Chapter 1: Mexican Girl - Making Of The Album
10. Chapter 1: Can't Wait Too Long - Making Of The Album
11. Chapter 1: Going Home - Making Of The Album
12. Chapter 1: Live Let Live - Making Of The Album
13. Chapter 1: Going Home - Making Of The Album
14. Chapter 2: Good Kind Of Love - Live Performance From Capitol Studio A
15. Chapter 2: Forever My Surfer Girl - Live Performance From Capitol Studio A

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001BN7328/?tag=imwan-20

Is anybody else a little concerned about the spoken word interludes? Yeeesh.

I'm always concerned when something has spoken word interludes.

No kidding. When was the last time you sat through the Mt Vernon tale on Holland?

Van Dyke Parks wrote these interludes and they are really, really great, they can easily hold up to repeated listening, but it would be nice (no pun intended) if they don't segue with the songs, so that I can program songs only if I should be so inclined.

Wouldn't that album cover have been more appropriate for Orange Crate Art?

Aside from that unnecessary comment, I'm eagerly awaiting this release. According to Pause & Play, there are perhaps just three CD's I'm looking forward to between now and Labor Day. That's pretty sad. However, one's by Brian Wilson and another's by Glen Campbell, and that's something to cheer about! Quality vs. quantity, right?

Jim

I've moved the details from a later post of Googa's up to his first post at the beginning of the thread, and added the pre-order links, so all the info about this album is in one handy place.

SFTW MEETS BRIAN WILSON
June 19

TODAY is Brian Wilson's 66th birthday and it's a safe bet he won't
be setting aside a new aspect of his daily routine.

"I walk every day for exercise so I can keep alive," says the Beach
Boys icon.

His manner is brusque but polite. You sense he only says things he
believes worth saying.

For years, he's struggled with mental illness but the life of Brian
is most definitely on the up in 2008. Simply being alive is
something he cherishes.

He affirms: "My state of being has been elevated because I've been
exercising and writing songs. I'm in a better frame of mind these
days. It feels great . . . it's like I see some light. Things make
sense to me again."

Later this month, Brian and his ten-piece backing band will bring a
selection of Beach Boys and solo songs to the UK for three shows. He
says these are "exciting times".

But, to tell his story properly, we must return to 1961, when the
girls were pretty, the open-top cars were flashy, the surf was up,
the sun rode high in the California sky and the Beach Boys came out
to play.

Throughout the ensuing decade, brothers Brian, Carl and Dennis
Wilson, their cousin Mike Love and schoolfriend Al Jardine, sent
wave after wave of singles crashing into the charts.

Dream:
I ask Brian for his impression of those heady days. "I just think
about us all gathered around the microphone. It's a nice memory."

The Beach Boys epitomised the American post-war dream, their music a
multi-coloured explosion of fun, fun, fun in the sun, sun, sun.

Sublime vocal harmonies, glorious tunes and feel-good lyrics turned
songs like Good Vibrations, Surfin' USA, I Get Around, Barbara Ann
and California Girls into the timeless wonders we treasure today.

Advertisement:
Their 1966 album Pet Sounds was the culmination of Brian's
songwriting artistry and his recording mastery, a bona fide American
equivalent of The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Paul McCartney has often said that one of the album's classics, God
Only Knows, written by Brian and sung by voice-of-an- angel Carl, is
the greatest song ever written.

So, was Pet Sounds Brian's proudest achievement? "Actually, I think
SMiLE was my best achievement, " Brian replies.

"Pet Sounds was good too, though." (He's a master of
understatement. )

It's sad to think this genius chief architect of the band's unique
sunlit sound went on to suffer years in the darkness in the
Seventies and Eighties.

Mental illness allied to drug abuse left Brian lost in a world of
his own from which few believed he would return.

But his rehabilitation began in 1988 with his first solo album and
continued with I Just Wasn't Made For These Times (1995), Orange
Crate Art (1995 with long-time collaborator Van Dyke Parks),
Imagination (1998) and Gettin' In Over My Head (2004).

Also in 2004, he finally realised his lost masterpiece SMiLE.

"It was amazing," reflects Brian. "I never ever imagined it coming
out until about 2003/4 when my manager and my wife said: `You ought
to try to finish it."

He also released a Pet Sounds Live album, but would he consider
playing the album again in its entirety in concert? "I don't think
we'll be doing that again. We just thought we drove it into the
ground."

Now, he looks forward to releasing a new album in September that
again casts a bit more sunshine into his life.

That Lucky Old Sun takes its name from a song written in 1949 and
made famous by, among others, Louis Armstrong. Brian's
interpretation is the opening track and it begins like this:

Up in the mornin'/Out on the job/ Work like the devil for my pay/
But that lucky old sun got nothin' to do/ But roll around heaven all
day.

It was the lyrics that inspired Brian to write the rest of the
album. "It all spawned from that," he says.

"I never knew the song but I wanted to hear it.

Hit singles ... The Beach Boys

"I went and bought Louis Armstrong's version. I played it and
learned it and changed the chords round a little bit."

The album reunites Brian with Capitol Records, the label that
released so many of those Beach Boys' hits in the Sixties.

Brian says on his website: "I'm thrilled to be back home with
Capitol and I'm looking forward to sharing That Lucky Old Sun with
everyone. This music is really special to me."

But he tells me that the day he signed was not such a happy event,
the circus surrounding his appearance at the label's offices causing
some distress. It was an emotional experience for me. I got kinda
sentimental about it.

"I had a tough time, though, because we were running around like
chickens with our heads cut off.

"It was a whole mess. The room was filled with people. There were so
many people in that room. You could hardly move around."

As for the music, Brian has used it to rekindle his love affair with
Southern California and the Pacific Ocean. Forever My Surfer Girl is
a modern take on The Beach Boys' 1963 hit Surfer Girl.

Brian explains: "It was inspired by my original song but I just
wanted to change it around so it could be interesting. "

Did it say something about him now rather than him in the
Sixties? "Right, exactly."

Roll:
Another new song, Midnight's Another Day, is already being described
as a classic.

"It just came out of my head. Nothing inspired it or anything. It's
one of my very favourites on the album."

And California Role alludes to the place Brian sees himself in right
now. One line goes: "You don't have to climb the Capitol tower or
play the Hollywood Bowl/If there's a roll in your heart and a rock
in your soul".

It's particularly resonant as Brian, his band and a firework show
will light up the famed Bowl for three nights in September.

The album features collaborations with band member Scott Bennett and
his "sidekick" Van Dyke Parks who he describes as one of the "great
lyricists."

Brian explains that it's an "interwoven series of rounds with
interspersed spoken word", a kind of autobiographical travelogue, a
chance to reflect on his life less ordinary.

It's clear that these are "exciting times" indeed.

He got his first Grammy in 2005 for Mrs O'Leary's Cow from SMiLE and
last year

the Kennedy Center Honors committee recognised Brian's cultural
significance alongside Diana Ross, Steve Martin and Martin Scorsese.

That Lucky Old Sun may be rolling around heaven all day, but it's
also shining on Brian Douglas Wilson once more.

Brian Wilson plays Kenwood, Hampstead, London, on June 28
(picnicconcerts. com), Ipswich Regent Theatre on June 29
(livenation. co.uk) and the Royal Albert Hall, London, on July 1
(royalalberthall. com or ticketline.co. uk). The Beach Boys' US
Singles Collection: The Capitol Years (1962-65) is out now. That
Lucky Old Sun by Brian Wilson is out on September 2.

And here's the trailer for the album:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRymasHGzUk[/youtube]

Thanks Linda, that was very enjoyable!

Rick A.

BRIAN WILSON That Lucky Old Sun - Limited Edition Collector's Vinyl - Available 8/19

Got this in an email:
It may be more readable here:
http://www.almightyisis.com/images/bbim ... Vinyl.html





http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001BN731Y/?tag=imwan-20

Uncut likes TLOS:

(From BrianWilson.com, click to enlarge)

I love Brian Wilson. In fact, I was lucky enough to do a feature on him back in September 2004 when SMiLE was released. I interviewed him at his rehearsal space in L.A. He was in a great mood and was really talkative and afterwards I watched him and the band play SMiLE and Pet Sounds back to back. An amazing moment in my life. The new album sounds great and it's nice to see him writing new stuff with his bandmates, who totally get what he's all about.

That being said, he's been talking about recording with Paul McCartney and putting out a "Phil Spector" style rock album forever. And he recorded the version of Proud Mary he refers to back in the 90's with the brilliant Andy Paley.




Brian Wilson sunny about new solo album

By Solvej Schou, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Brian Wilson sits on a plush couch in his living room, smiling nervously.

On the Beach Boys visionary's back porch, his family's 15 pooches yip and scramble over each other. Inside, photos of he and wife Melinda Ledbetter's children - 11-year-old Daria, 10-year-old Delanie and four-year-old Dylan - lace the walls.

The two-storey house, snuggled deep into a gated hillside community in Beverly Hills, is immaculately clean, with beige carpeting and marble floors. Housekeepers tidy up downstairs. A swimming pool overlooks the sun-drenched valley below. It all resembles a postcard.

"I'm happier now than I was a year ago," Wilson said in a recent interview. "I started exercising and I started eating more of the right food and I started feeling better. I just get up in the morning and say my prayers."

Gangly and tall in a pinstriped dress shirt, his greying hair swept back into waves, the wizard songwriter and composer behind such '60s Beach Boys hits as "Good Vibrations" and "California Girls" stares with sharp blue eyes, frequently fidgeting.

A lot has changed for the historically reclusive Southern California native, who speaks with a slight slur, a result of his drug-abuse past and medicated journey through mental illness.


He is a second-round father at the age of 66 (musician daughters Wendy, 38, and Carnie, 40, from his first marriage, tour as The Wilsons). Following 2004's long-awaited rock opera "Smile," and a 2005 Christmas release, he has a new, ambitious solo album, "That Lucky Old Sun," due out Sept. 2. He is touring behind the material, pushing through years of stage fright.

"I think the new album is just as good as anything the Beach Boys ever recorded," says Wilson. "Playing these songs live, I feel proud. You know that funny feeling you get in your stomach, like, 'Oh my God, this is sounding great!' "

Two years ago, he says, he recorded 18 songs then chose 10 last year for Capitol Records/EMI. He came up with the album's lush orchestration and music, while 43-year-old bandmate Scott Bennett scribed the lyrics, with colourful narrative interludes by Wilson's longtime collaborator Van Dyke Parks.

The outcome is a blend of uptempo pop and piano-based ballads. The title track, a cover of Louis Armstrong's "That Lucky Old Sun," flows into the bouncy anthem "Morning Beat," setting the album's tone.

"Van Dyke Parks, Brian and Melinda thought this should be a love letter to Los Angeles. At this point, Brian was 65-years-old and it just felt right to embrace his legend and be a bit nostalgic," Bennett says.

Songs such as "Forever She'll Be My Surfer Girl" touch on Beach Boys melodies while "Mexican Girl" adds a dash of salsa flavour. "Midnight's Another Day" and "Oxygen to the Brain" reference Wilson's dark days in the '70s and '80s, when he receded from the spotlight into isolation, drugs and weight gain.

Wilson calls "Midnight's Another Day," which skirts on a solitary piano melody, his favourite song, "kind of introspective, kind of how I feel around people."

The album's last song, "Southern California," reminisces about co-founding the Beach Boys in 1961 with his late brothers Carl and Dennis, and ends the album on an uplifting note. Wilson sings, "It's magical/ Living your dream."

"Yes, Brian had a rough time of it, with his mental health, but I would kill to have the kind of catalogue he does, and tour everywhere with his brothers like he did," says Bennett, who confirms that Wilson "is on a heavy dose of antidepressants."

Regardless, Wilson has hit a creative stride in his life.

Inspiration comes at night when he sits down alone at his Yamaha synthesizer and grand piano in his purple-curtained music room.

"When I go to the keyboard, I feel holy, like an angel over my head. I feel very holy. When we did (the Beach Boys hit) 'God Only Knows,' I felt holy about that too. A godly something comes through me," Wilson says, motioning with his hands. "I'm always thinking about melodies. The melodies come from my brain, and my keyboards. I play a really pleasant keyboard. It sounds so pleasant it makes me want to write melodies."

But life as a busy dad and touring musician can be overwhelming. Wilson describes a house full of kids and dogs as "very loud" and "a madhouse." He frequently goes to a nearby park and takes walks.

"The kids make me feel a little jumpy," he says. "Sometimes I want to get out of the house to get away from my kids but I love my kids a lot. I love my kids. . . . Quiet time comes around 10 at night when I go to sleep. It's peace of mind. Things run smoothly at night. During the day, things are more rough."

Later on, when Ledbetter comes home with their small son Dylan - floppy-haired, barefoot and wearing a Hawaiian shirt - Wilson brightens. He's quieter when it comes to daughters Wendy and Carnie, who both live less than 16 kilometres away.

"I don't talk to them very much. I used to. I recorded with them at one time, but I don't talk to them a lot," he says, explaining that the women are "really busy."

Questions about the Beach Boys' current status get lukewarm response as well. Wilson, who also formed the band with cousin Mike Love and then-school friend Al Jardine, split with most of the group's surviving members years ago amid legal squabbles. Love and later Beach Boys bandmate Bruce Johnston tour as the Beach Boys Band, while Jardine has his own Endless Summer Band. Wilson stresses the subject's touchiness.

"We don't want any publicity about me getting back with the Beach Boys, cause I don't want to. They're not my group anymore. That's Mike and Bruce's group now. I'm on my own, and I would rather do that than go back to the Beach Boys," he says.

Wilson, though, clearly loves performing Beach Boys tunes as well as his own solo work, even with nightly stage fright, which he says he works through by getting neck and shoulder rubs, and praying.

At a taping days later for Yahoo! Music's Live Sets, Wilson is joined onstage by his nine-piece band, including Bennett and members of the Wondermints, who have played with him for 10 years.

Tentatively at first, Wilson claps his hands and directs the group in rousing, harmony-filled versions of such Beach Boys classics as "Help Me Rhonda" and "I Get Around." Wilson later sings from the new album.

When asked during a Q&A session his biggest regret, he doesn't mince words.

"The drugs I took which kind of messed up my mind. The LSD, the marijuana, the cocaine," he says, to audience laughter.

Wilson isn't letting his past stop him from throwing his ambitions forward.

After "That Lucky Old Sun," Wilson says the unreleased songs he recorded, including a slow, smooth version of "Proud Mary," will form another album. He gushes that "the only person I really want to work with is Paul McCartney." He would also like to record "a rock 'n' roll album inspired by Phil Spector's type records, a really hard rock album that really rocks, with big orchestration, the whole bit."

Yet, he also views his future gingerly, as day to day.

"I look forward to today," he said. "I never look forward to the future because I think to myself, 'What if there's an earthquake, what if I die or someone I love dies?' I get those kind of thoughts all the time. It's 'oof' to my head."

andyb,

Thanks for sharing this wonderful interview with us and welcome to the forum. I too have had the pleasure of meeting Brian Wilson once. It's good news that he's going to put out more of the unreleased stuff. We need the Andy Paley sessions and Sweet Insanity as well.

Here's the sort of thing that ticks me right off.

According to Brian's website both iTunes and Best Buy will be carrying exclusive bonus tracks for "That Lucky Old Sun":

The iTunes version contains bonus tracks for "Oh Mi Amor" and "Message Man" along with a video for "Midnight's Another Day" and a digital booklet.
The Best Buy version contains three bonus tracks: "Good Kind Of Love" featuring Carole King, "I'm Into Something Good" featuring Carole King (was a hit for the Herman's Hermits back in the 60s and written by Goffin/King) and "Just LIke Me And You" which was written by Brian solo.


So that's 5 tracks in total. Which means if a Brian fan wants them, they need to buy at least two separate versions of the album. And don't forget there's the cd/dvd version. Plus the vinyl (which would be an indulgence on my part, but still).

Further to that, will a Canadian such as myself be able to get the Best Buys bonus tracks. I've been shafted so many time with the logistics between the Canadian and American Best Buy. I had to ask someone in the states to get me the Who triple disc version of "Endless Wire" and I missed out on the bonus disc in the Black Sabbath "Rules of Hell" box set, since BestBuy.com won't ship to Canada.

Any advice and opinions on this. I'm a little p.o.'d at the moment.

If you're a completist, don't get PO'ed until we see what the import versions will contain. Sometimes the Japanese album and single, for example, will cover all the extant bonus tracks from all the various USA releases. iTunes bonus tracks almost always end up on proper CDs somewhere in the world. It's still more expensive than getting one nice straightforward domestic release, but better than having to get 5 versions of the same album for 2 or 3 tracks apiece.

Rich, I also got the vinyl edition this week. No, the LP was planned to be released before the CD. Nice warm analog sound.
By the way, I love Vintage Vinyl, is this the same one located in Ford, NJ or another location?
Every trip I make to NJ I get over there. Excellent stock.

I give the album a B+, side 2 being stronger and the reason for the +. I have pre-ordered the CD/DVD from Amazon and now I find out about the Best Buy. Hopefully they will have it at a great sale price.

Rick A.

MOJO gives it four stars, says it's probably the best BB release since 1972's "Surf's up".

I've just received my copy of the CD/DVD (no bonus tracks) - this is a great great record. The narrations are fine for what they are, I'm gravitating to the background tunes on those, but boy oh boy, what wonderful production on this album. It's so warm.
I don't think it's SMiLE (how could it be) but it is miles ahead of Gettin Over My Head and Imagination (sorry Rich, I think that album has some great moments but the production is so sterile to my ears).
I don't know how it will do sales wise, but few if any artists of any generation are making albums and taking risks anymore.
Kudos to Brian for yet another wonderful album.

Whoa!! My old haunt!

I used to frequent the VV in Wall, I think it was (think it was on Rt. 35), but when that location shut down I'd make frequent trips to Woodbridge. Most of my best records came from VV.

I was hoping this might be the case, but having just checked both CD Japan and HMV Japan's page for the Japanese September release, it doesn't appear there's anything extra. HMV Japan also lists the European version as an import to them and same thing on that page.

Best Buy's page lists the CD with the three bonus cuts, and the page with the CD/DVD combo DOESN'T list those cuts as coming with that version, so to get everything you need: 1. the Best Buy CD with the 3 extra tracks, 2 the CD/DVD combo and 3. the itunes download.

This really sucks. I have no problem with downloads for those who prefer convenience over sound quality and packaging; what is infuriating is the same material not being available in a physical CD for those who prefer that. It's simply a matter of having — or being denied — the option.