I find it hard to understand how people can have such difficulty in recognsising that there is a distinction between the person singing (or writing) the song, and the character who is contained in the song, even when it is in the first person.

But they do. Time after time you get discussions about some songmaker or singer in which people leap to the assumption that it's all first person confesional stuff. Even on the Mudcat.

Obviously there are times and somngs where people are making a personal statement. But equally there are others when that's far from being true.

It's similar to the way you find people working up a head of hatred (or adulation) for some actor on account of what a character they play in a soap or a film gets up to.

I suppose it can be seen as a kind of tribute to the quality of the acting or the singer and/or songwriter.