2007 was the year in which I experienced something for, I think, the first time: use of the wrong word in a song lyric.
"The Bird And The Bee", by The Bird And The Bee, was one of my very favourite records of the year (notwithstanding its non-appearance in almost all year-end lists that I have seen - never trust a critic - one exception being Marcello Carlin). But my enjoyment of it is, I am afraid, tainted by a big howler: on the song "Because", Inara George sings "I'm lying prostate on the ground". Now, the old prostate/prostrate dichotomy is fun when (mis)applied by football commentators, but its appearance in one of the crucial (and clearest, and oft-repeated) lines in a song poses a problem: what does one do when singing along? Correct the mistake? But then one is not actually singing the song as written (and sung), but one's own, edited, version of same, and what business do I have in interfering with somebody else's song? And I've tried it: I feel like a schoolteacher. (And where would that end: "No, I'm not going to work on Maggie's farm any more"?) Perpetuate the mistake? Well, naturally I'm not comfortable with that. Not sing along at all? (Many would be grateful.) Press the "skip" button? I really don't know. It's vexing.
(Curiously, and somewhat tangentially, for some reason multiple copies of this CD appeared mid-year in Canberra's main second-hand CD shop. This could not be explained by natural attrition; I suppose they could have been review copies, but there is nothing marked on them to suggest that; could they have been hot? (But where would they have been nicked from in the first place? I don't think I've actually seen it for sale new anywhere, and you can't imagine too many shops ordering in more than one or two.) Strange. Canberra is full of little mysteries like this.)
