songwriting

I was just listening to one of my new CDs--The Ugly Organ by Cursive--and I realized that I usually assume the characters in songs are referring to the songwriter rather than being fictional. This realization troubles me somewhat because I have been trying to move away from this assumption when I read poetry. I should try to work against that assumption for songs as well because poems are just as likely to be about their authors than songs are likely to be about their authors.