The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner

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The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner
Studio album by Ben Folds Five
Released April 27, 1999
Recorded November 1998 – January 1999
Genre Alternative rock
Length 40:29
Label 550 Music
Producer Caleb Southern
Professional reviews
Ben Folds Five chronology
Naked Baby Photos
(1998)
The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner
(1999)

The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner is the third and last studio album by Ben Folds Five, released in 1999 (see 1999 in music).

The title of the album is said to refer to a name that the band's drummer Darren Jessee used on fake IDs as a teenager. The band was unaware of the existence of a real Reinhold Messner, a famous mountain climber, until work on the album had already progressed. Messner later contacted Ben Folds Five to let them know that he was highly pleased with the album. He is thanked in the record's liner notes for his understanding and cooperation.

At least two songs, "Break Up at Food Court" and "Carrying Cathy", were recorded during these sessions, but were neither released nor played live by the band. Folds would later re-record "Carrying Cathy" for his debut solo release, Rockin' The Suburbs.

Contents

[edit] Track listing

All songs written by Ben Folds except as indicated.

  1. "Narcolepsy" – 5:24
  2. "Don't Change Your Plans" – 5:11
  3. "Mess" – 4:03
  4. "Magic" (Darren Jessee) – 4:02
  5. "Hospital Song" – 2:05
  6. "Army" – 3:25
  7. "Your Redneck Past" – 3:43
  8. "Your Most Valuable Possession" (Ben Folds/Darren Jessee/Robert Sledge/Dean Folds/Caleb Southern) – 1:55
  9. "Regrets" – 4:07
  10. "Jane" – 2:42
  11. "Lullabye" (Ben Folds/Anna Goodman) – 3:53
  12. "(Theme From) Dr. Pyser" (Australian bonus track)
    "Birds" (Japanese bonus track)

[edit] Personnel

Ben Folds Five

Additional personnel

[edit] Production

  • Producer: Caleb Southern
  • Mixing: Andy Wallace

[edit] Charts

Album - Billboard (North America)

Year Chart Position
1999 The Billboard 200 35
1999 Top Internet Albums 3

Singles - Billboard (North America)

Year Single Chart Position
1999 "Army" Modern Rock Tracks 17

[edit] Miscellanea

  • The song Most Valuable Possession is an actual message left on Folds' answering machine by his father, Dean Folds.
  • Folds talks about how the final version for Don't Change Your Plans came about. "...I’d never heard the song that way ever once. And then when we came into the studio one day he had chopped the beginning of the song, which had been this long instrumental thing. Just cut it away and then all of a sudden it was this pop song. And then it was like ‘Oh okay. I see what you’re talking about.’ Cause I didn’t hear it like that at all. I just heard it as this little masterpiece thing.”
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