Why do the great rock songwriters of the 60s and 70s suck so much now?

I actually got this idea from a political blog, which you can read at Bartcop.com. It's mostly about President Bush and how much he sucks, but the blogger is also a huge fan of U2 and Shirley Manson of Garbage. Anyway, the other day, he put up a post on how Paul McCartney's latest album sucks in comparison to the albums he put out back in the 1970's, when he wrote "Maybe I'm Amazed," "Jet," "Band On The Run," and "Live and Let Die." He also said that Roger Daltrey and Pete Townsend haven't written any decent music since "Eminence Front", Robert Plant and Jimmy Page haven't written any good music since the mid-1980s, Eric Clapton went from a Rock and Roll guitar god to meddling lite-FM artist, and Bruce Springsteen and Rod Stewart have basically shifted into doing the classics (Bruce: Woody Guthrie, Rod: Great American Songbook). He also said that he can't think of any great female rock and roll songwriters with any longevity since Carole King.

His theory about this is that the artists got old and lost their testosterone. In other words, when they were younger and hornier, they wrote more biting and meaningful lyrics. Other people who read the blog agreed somewhat, but their theory is that the artists became too comfortable after they became rich and famous, so much of the inspriation for their earlier lyrics is no longer there. I commented that this was one of the main reasons, but that age and drug and alcohol use may have also taken a psychological toll on the artists. After all, how many artists these days would write anything about the joys of doing cocaine like they did in the 70s?

He also claimed that U2 is the only band that he knows about that continues to write great songs. I replied to him that Neil Young still writes great music. However, what do you people on the Org think about this?

Well, while this may be true for a lot of classic artists, I don't think it's true for everyone.

Besides, I would strongly disagree with his opinion on Paul McCartney's latest album- which I think may be his best album since Band on the Run (besting much of his 70s material).

did i hear someone say Stevie ????!!!