was just looking up some things about Nilsson Schmilsson and ran across this blog or something where the guy had posted this story. there's no way it's true, but I hadn't ever heard it, had to post it :
"They say that when Nilsson was making this record, the band was worried at one point because they had been in the studio for like 4 weeks and all Harry had done all day was dick around and he hadn't written a thing. Old Gary Wright had been getting mad because they kept scheduling him to come in and record but every time nothing would get done. So one morning the dudes come knocking on Nilsson's hotel door and the plan was to put on some sort of intervention to get his ass moving, or they were just going to abort the project pretty much. So he answers the door having just woken up, and tells them to have a seat while he "washes the sleep out of his eyes". So Harry gets out of the shitter after like 20 minutes and these guys are just sitting there stewing all that time, and they just start cutting into him about his work ethic. He's standing there in his bathrobe listening for a minute and he finally cuts them off with, "What are you guys talking about? I've got the entire album written!" Of course the band is like, "Yeah, he's totally bullshitting right now." But Harry won't change his tune, and off they go to the studio. Wouldn't you know, 3 hours later they've run through the basics of all ten songs on the album, along with one or two others that didn't make it onto the final mix, and all the songs are great. I mean this is a fucking nice mix of material, conceptually sound and with a couple tracks that would eventually become Nilsson classics. So the guys later on are like, "Harry, seriously, when did you come up with this stuff?" "That morning when you guys all stopped by, I wrote it all while I was pinching a loaf," Harry says. Well, nobody believed him but to remember the occasion they had him put on his bathrobe and pose for some pictures for the album cover. Legend has it that from that time on, Gary Wright did all his songwriting while in the John in order to try and capture some of Harry Nilsson's magic."