The Song:To make it feel more authentic, Beck filled out his
Song Reader book with fragments of songs, and even just made-up song titles. This is one of the titles, listed in
Ye Midnight Stars, a collection of "songs from the afterlife." Most of the
Ye Midnight Stars titles are humorous looks at death, heaven, etc.
This title seems to be referring a fairly famous quote: "You haven't lived until you've died in California." It originated with Mort Sahl, an influential stand-up comic from the '60s. Beck and his publishers removed the 'in California' part and ended up with a perfect gospel song title!