Wow. He was still going strong. We did an interview with him last year where he told the "Southern Nights" story:
http://www.songfacts.com/blog/playin...thern_nights_/

Here's the short version:
Van Dyke Parks visited me in the studio. He was a wonderful guy, a genius of a guy. He said, "Well, consider that you were going to die in two weeks. If you knew that, what would you think you would like to have done?" And after he said that, I wrote "Southern Nights" as soon as he left.