studios. It features a notable amount of overdubs such as a heavy use of string sections, french horns, and a prominent horn section in the lead single "Army". Songs Both critics and the band members themselves have described The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner to be a loose concept album, following the Reinhold Messner character through his life, heartache, hospitalization, and childhood memories. During the WASO Live in Perth concert, Folds describes the song "Narcolepsy" as "about going to sleep, but it's the about the kind of going to sleep that you can't help. I always related it to – there's a kind of narcolepsy where you're overstimulated in any kind of way, if you get really happy or excited or sad or whatever, you just go right to sleep; I realized that there's lots of guys out there that do this emotionally, including myself." Originally, "Don't Change Your Plans" was preceded by a long instrumental passage; Folds credits Southern for helping edit down the song to its final product, and told an interviewer that Southern, "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.” In a Reddit AMA, Folds claims Southern "cut the parts he didn't like and literally left the unwanted bits on the floor. I imagine the floor was cleaned and the recording went into the trash." On the Ben Folds iTunes Originals, Folds explains that the song "Mess" is a "loss of innocence song" about having so much baggage that now you are unable to completely explain your history; "you've made a mess." The hospital referred to in "Hospital Song" is a real hospital: Forsyth Medical Center, located on Silas Creek Parkway in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The vocal portion of "Your Most Valuable Possession" consists of a message left on Folds' answering machine by his father, Dean Folds, while he was partially asleep. Outtakes The band recorded the songs "Leather Jacket" (written by Jessee) and "Birds" (an instrumental written by Sledge) during the Reinhold Messner sessions; the songs were not included on the album, but were released as b-sides on the "Army" and "Don't Change Your Plans" singles. "Leather Jacket" would also later appear on the charity compilation No