Editing ...Famous Last Words... (section)

== Background and recording ==
Though [[Rick Davies]] and Roger Hodgson had long been writing their songs separately, they had always conceived the theme and overlying direction for each album together. ''...Famous Last Words...'' became the exception to this rule: having been living in different parts of California in the months leading up to the recording, they each conceived their own vision for the album. Hodgson wanted to do another pop album in the vein of ''[[Breakfast in America]]'', while Davies had envisioned a heavy [[progressive rock]] album with a 10-minute song called "[[Brother Where You Bound (song)|Brother Where You Bound]]" as its centerpiece.<ref name="Melhuish"/>

According to [[Bob Siebenberg]], "In the end, they both kind of changed their formats and their picture of what they thought this album should be. It became a diluted version of what it started out to be. It was really neither here nor there."<ref name="Melhuish">{{cite book|last=Melhuish|first=Martin|title=The Supertramp Book|place=Toronto, Canada|publisher=Omnibus Press|year=1986|isbn=978-0-9691272-2-2|pages=167–175}}</ref> In particular, the band decided to leave out "Brother Where You Bound", since it was too "heavy" to fit alongside Hodgson's pop compositions.<ref name="Melhuish" /> Supertramp used "Brother Where You Bound" for their next album, ''[[Brother Where You Bound]]'' (1985), though it had by that point evolved from 10&nbsp;minutes to 16 and a half through the addition of some new sections.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}}

As usual, the songs are all officially credited as being written by Davies/Hodgson. However, the sleeve notes colour-code the songs' lyrics by individual author. The lead vocalist on each song is the same as its writer: "Crazy", "[[It's Raining Again]]", "Know Who You Are", "C'est le bon", and "Don't Leave Me Now" were written by Hodgson, and "Put on Your Old Brown Shoes", "Bonnie", "[[My Kind of Lady]]", and "Waiting So Long" were written by Davies.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}}

The album's working title was ''Tightrope.''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pfenninger |first=Leslie J. |title=Supertramp {{!}} On A&M Records |url=https://www.onamrecords.com/artists/supertramp |access-date=2023-11-28 |website=www.onamrecords.com |language=en}}</ref> The album was mainly recorded and mixed at Hodgson's home, Unicorn Studios in [[Nevada City, California|Nevada City]], California, as he did not want to leave his wife, his then two-year-old daughter Heidi, and newborn son Andrew behind. Davies wound up recording his vocal and keyboard parts at his home studio, The Backyard Studios, in [[Encino, Los Angeles|Encino]], California. Other overdubs were at Bill Schnee Recording Studios in Los Angeles.{{citation needed|date=March 2020}}

At the time of the album's release, many interpreted the title (which at that point became ''...Famous Last Words...'') and cover art as thinly-veiled hints that Supertramp was breaking up.<ref name="Melhuish" /> In a 2015 interview, Hodgson confirmed that he and Davies decided on the title because "we weren't doing [a record] again".<ref>{{Citation|last=ROCK ANTENNE|title=Roger Hodgson: Will Supertramp reunite? - Wird es eine Supertramp Reunion geben?|date=2015-07-16|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdd6FGJulAw |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211212/Tdd6FGJulAw| archive-date=2021-12-12 |url-status=live|access-date=2018-03-04}}{{cbignore}}</ref> He said that he regrets recording the album, calling it "a last-ditch attempt to try and make things happen" after the life had gone out of the band.<ref>(2009). [http://www.inthestudio.net/ 30th Anniversary Breakfast in America Feature], ''[[In the Studio (radio show)|In the Studio]]''. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140208014251/http://www.inthestudio.net/ |date=8 February 2014 }}</ref> Conversely, [[John Helliwell]] said in 1986: "We wanted a phrase that bore some relationship with what we were doing but was enigmatic at the same time. We always like to have enigmatic titles like ''[[Crime of the Century (album)|Crime of the Century]]''{{nbsp}}... This last LP we thought was going to be real quick. We thought we were going to rehearse it and record it real quick and it ended up taking longer than any other so we had to eat our words again. For the past three or four LPs we've been saying, 'Let's be well prepared.' So the title sprung out of that as well. I can't remember who first thought of it. The graphic design came directly from the title."<ref name="Melhuish" />