Just came across this and, though it's a few years late, would like to add my memory.

Earl stayed at my house in Detroit when I was a kid, probably 8 years old. I don't know specifics except that my parents were members of The Detroit Jewish Folk Chorus singing The Lonesome Train at the Masonic Temple.

I remember my mom set up a card table for him next to our baby grand piano with a large bowl of fruit, a shot glass, and a bottle of liquor. He was composing "Black and White." As I remember, he would play a chord, write it, down a shot, play another chord, write it or erase and rewrite, and take another shot.