A Stickler For The Rules

There were rumbles at last night's concert rehearsal. During a run through of a new medley of songs from Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, a dispute over spelling started. It all started off rather jovial but quickly descended and became a bit of a slagging match. It was kind of understandable really in that the person who had typed out the words, quite obviously, became defensive. I have always found though that when people get defensive (no matter how understandable this is) the issue tends to be dissolved and forgotten about. The main crux of this argument was about the words "where" or "were". These are two different words and within the context of the lyric only one of them made sense. "WERE the steeple bells ever quite as gay" or "WHERE the steeple bells ever quite as gay" Surely only the first version makes sense! (excuse me if the lyric isn't quite right, I'm not familiar with Seven Brides, and I can't find this version on the Internet) The response to people's protests was that it doesn't matter - well, it does! They are two different words.
Were - the past simple of be
Where - adverb, referring to a place
I am what Lynn Truss refers to as a "stickler". Someone who finds grammatical errors everywhere and abhors them! In my mind there is no excuse for bad grammar. Not everyone is great at spelling, but nowadays with the advent of computers with spell check even that is not an issue. However, when I was younger, before computers were part of every household, I would use a dictionary if I didn't know how to spell a word.
My favourite gripe when it comes to grammar has to be the wide-spread misuse of the apostrophe. And this also seems to be the most common mistake as well. the one that really gets my goat is people who write "your" instead of "you're". There is a simple rule for the use of the apostrophe in this way (this does not apply to the use of the apostrophe for possession). The apostrophe replaces the letter that you are cutting out. For example in the case of "you're" the apostrophe replaces the "a" in "you are" making it one word. And "your" is a possession word, "your car", "your mobile phone". Therefore "you're" can be used thus, "you're a really nice guy!" or "you're really good with grammar"!!!
Who would have thought that all this could have come out of getting together for a good old sing-song?!?! And for a room full of lovies, I really wasn't feeling the love! (the apostrophe in "wasn't" replaced the "o" in "was not"!)