[7shadesofblack]

I've wondered sometimes, and there are plenty of examples to look at, if the reason that many aging musicians/rockstars fail to match their earlier genius is because they have little memory or memories distorted by time of what it is like to be an average person.
In Billy's case, I'm certainly not one of the Zeit haters, and I think it's a worthwhile record, but it cannot be favorably compared with his first 3 LP's. Why is that? There are tons of variables, and I'm sure it's a combination of them, but the one I'd like to hear your opinion of is the possibility of rockstardom's corrupting nature.
It would probably be tough to write meaningful, authentic songs that the masses can relate to when for the last 15 or more years you've either been on world tours, crammed onto a bus, living as a recluse in your mansion, unsuccessfully dating other stars/"artists", and working in the studio. That's not much of a life at all. It's easy to think a life like that would be awesome, and it probably would for some time, but has it erased Billy's notions of himself and the world? For his first three albums it seems he was writing on behalf of a poor kid from Chicago, taken for granted, abused, bright, angry, romantic...and having read his confessions, he lead a strange life, mingling with homeless hookers in Florida while his first band went no where and he ran out of money. All of that stuff is great material, and when he was writing from that perspective I think he wrote many of the best songs from the 90's, period.
But it seems that eventually he made the conscious decision (the point at which he made it is debatable) that it was time to "grow up" and write songs from his then-current point of view, and that's when his songs lifted off and have never touched earth again. Most of his songs ever since have, although musically impressive, been at best lofty, and at worst contrived. I don't necessarily say that as an insult, and that's the point of my thread.
In between SP1 and SP2 instead of dabbling with Zwan and electronic music experiments, I wish he could have disappeared in the witness protection program, worked a standard job, met actual girls that still have souls, gone on some vacations, and lived as most average people do...then when it was time for SP2 maybe we would have some songs with the punch and depth of Rhinoceros, Spaceboy, Hummer, To Forgive and so on.
Obviously that scenario is unrealistic on several levels, but do you people agree or disagree with this idea? Have some examples of other musicians that support or are exceptions to my theory?