Talking to a friend last night, the conversation turned to music, and my friend mentioned that one of her favourite ever songs is 'Because' by the Beatles.

In the course of the conversation, I mentioned that it (and this is fairly well documented) was written under the influence of heroin.

My friend (who has good reason to despise hard drugs) instantly changed her opinion on the song, and that had she known that 'fact,' she would never have liked the song to begin with.

So, my question is, does it matter what a musician, writer etc is like? Does the song stand alone, or is it 'part' of the person who wrote it?

To take the most extreme example that I can think of, if you discovered that your favorite song was written by a paedophile, would it change your opinion of how great the song was?

I'd be interested in any opinions

Ed