there's so little else occupying my head

I have this sneaking suspicion that the blogosphere is out-of-fashion these days and no one bothered to inform me. Or is it solidarity with the writer's strike? Or maybe this is just a sign of my advanced age, as all the blogs I used to frequent seem to have thinned out considerably. Maybe there's a whole crop of newbies that I'm just not aware of. Give me some suggestions, peeps, and I'll play the auntie at all kinds of blogs. Not really, but you never know.

Anyway. This week's song spurs a question. There's this whole list of artists in my head, these wonderful, wonderful artists who lost their minds at some point and never quite got it back together. You could argue with this week's song that it was the 80s, so maybe it was the listeners that had lost their minds, and simply recovered it after a time. Except this: I still love Raspberry Beret. And you know, let's face it, so do you.

I can't hold it against people when they sort of fall into decline and start to suck. Just because he is woefully un-funny these days, it doesn't mean I can turn up my nose at old Seinfeld episodes and pretend that I don't find them hilarious even still. I think you ought to be given credit, cut some slack. I'm not saying I'm going to run out and watch Bee Movie to support the guy, nor am I going to watch Norbit. But, you know, Eddie Murphy used to be a bada$$, and I have to give him props for that (even if he turned into an a$$hat later on).

Similarly, I don't mind telling you that Prince was really only good during a certain era. But when he was good, he was sort of unbelievable. There's this temptation to tell him to just stop and bask in the glory of those old songs. But it's kind of unfair to say, "Hey, that was awesome. Now can you stop and go away?" I guess that's entertainment for you.

It doesn't bother me that these guys stick around. It does me no harm that U2 loiters about and pumps out a mediocre song or two every so often, takes nothing away from how well-crafted Joshua Tree was. Who could blame the guys? I'm not going to run out and buy any of their new albums, but if other people bear them even more good will, enjoy.

I guess the thing is that I take music really personally, but so personally that I could give a crap about the person that actually made the music. There was probably a time when that was not true, but I was 12 then, so I'm glad I grew out of that. I don't care that Axl Rose looks like a Botox victim and is still talking smack without backing it up and hasn't put out a decent song in a decade- I'd still listen to Welcome to the Jungle any time it poppped up on the radio.

That's what I'm asking, I suppose. Do you feel that way too? Or are there some mistakes artists have made that you can't forgive them for? Can you just not listen to Madonna anymore because she covered American Pie or tried (badly, and in vain) to rap at one point? Or more importantly, are there songs so good that no matter how much crap an artist puts out afterwards, you can't hold it against them?

Or maybe I'm still suffering from after-effects of too much tryptophan and Theraflu and getting nothing much done this weekend. Move along then.