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Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
THEME: Lennon / McCartney — Beatles songs. Circles (which are, as a friend pointed out, here, there, everywhere) spell out MCCAARTNEY LENNON
Word of the Day: "GO NOW" (28D: First Moody Blues hit) —
"Go Now" is a song composed by Larry Banks and Milton Bennett. It was first recorded in 1964 by Bessie Banks, and most successfully byThe Moody Blues. // The song was first recorded by Larry Banks' former wife, Bessie Banks. A 1962 demo recording by Bessie of the song was heard by songwriters and record producers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, who re-recorded it and first released it in early 1964 on their Tiger label, and later reissued it on theBlue Cat label, the R&B/soul imprint of Red Bird.[1][2] Her version reached number forty on the Cash Box R&B singles chart.[3]
Bessie Banks later commented:"'I remember 1963 Kennedy was assassinated; it was announced over the radio. At the time, I was rehearsing in the office of Leiber and Stoller. We called it a day. Everyone was in tears. "Come back next week and we will be ready to record 'Go Now'"; and we did so. I was happy and excited that maybe this time I’ll make it. 'Go Now' was released and right away it was chosen Pick Hit of the Week on W.I.N.S. Radio. That means your record is played for seven days. Four days went by, I was so thrilled. On day five, when I heard the first line, I thought it was me, but all of a sudden, I realized it wasn’t. At the end of the song it was announced, "The Moody Blues singing 'Go Now'". I was too out-done. This was the time of the English Invasion and the end of Bessie Banks’ career, so I thought. America's DJs had stopped promoting American artists." (wikipedia)
• • •
Theme answers:
- 20A: 1970 song with the lyric "Whisper words of wisdom" ("LET IT BE")
- 21A: 1965 song with the lyric "Isn't he a bit like you and me?" ("NOWHERE MAN")
- 28A: 1969 song with the lyric "Once there was a way to get back homeward" ("GOLDEN SLUMBERS")
- 38A: 1965 song with the lyric "These are words that go together well" ("MICHELLE")
- 46A: 1965 song with the lyric "Think of what you're saying" ("WE CAN WORK IT OUT")
- 57A: 1968 song with the lyric "We all want to change the world" ("REVOLUTION")
- 61A: 1968 song with the lyric "Remember to let her into your heart" ("HEY, JUDE")
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Köln is German for the more familiar English Cologne.
ReplyDeleteSAES? Self Addressed Stamped Envelope is the enclosure I know, which is a SASE. Am I missing something or was there a case of dyslexia here.
ReplyDeleteI fell into the UNc trap as well as the DiO trap. Both were quickly fixed.
Karaoke time.
Ah - no stamp and more than one. I don't like it.
ReplyDeletePretty hard Monday for me. Thanks, Mr. Colliins. I knew most of the Beatles titles, but only a couple of the quoted lyrics. Some of the fill was unfamiliar (never heard of Mr. PIBB or GO NOW). The circles are silly.
ReplyDeleteMost appropriate theme since today (June 18th) is Paul McCartney's birthday! Happy Birthday, Sir Paul!
ReplyDeleteThis played slower than usual for me, because I had to sing each song in my head as I was solving!
ReplyDeleteI would imagine this was tough for those who aren't familiar with the Beatles' songs.
Didn't know GO NOW or GUERRE; liked KISSUPS.
Yes, for a Monday, this was a bit more difficult than I expected.
ReplyDeleteWith HULK, HOOKE, FOLK already in, I had “suck UP” for sycophants and was impressed by all the K’s. When I cleaned up the NE and erased “suck,” I thought, ok there goes one K, only to be replaced with KISS UP!
Call me a Cocktail Naming Garnish Snob, but the minute you put an onion in it, it changes from a Martini to a Gibson.
The biggest issue I had with his puzzle, though, is that it dealt me my most emotional reaction to a puzzle. Ever. Others have already casually pointed it out. With GUERRE and UNSEEN in, the UN_ of “Durham school” was there. With “Nast” in the clue for the remaining letter, and knowing “Conde Nast,” I was devastated. (Maybe his first initial was T, and then there was the C to complete UNc.) My heart rate shot up, my palms got all sweaty, and I did my best to fly through even though I truly couldn’t concentrate on the circles or the Beatles songs. I was extremely upset. Could Will really have missed this???? I was screaming inside, “Frank Bruni – fellow Tar Heel and NYT big wig – help!”
Peter Collins – brilliant, brilliant misdirect, even if unintentional. I have to go lie down.
Since Baylor is in Waco, you shouldn't have had that problem, Rexie.
ReplyDelete[Durham sch.] is an *old* misdirect. Well-worn.
ReplyDeleteOops! Rex, I think the circles spell out LENNON MCCARTNEY rather than MCCAARTNEY LENNON, as you say in the Theme. Obviously a typo.
ReplyDeleteSome of the titles came readily with the lyrics. Other songs were not as popular or we didn't want to sing along with them, so no reason to know the lyrics. But they're all Beatles songs.
One way to create a theme would be to have songs from the same album, such as the White Album or Revolver. But I think these come from a variety of albums. Another confusion occurs because the mix of songs was different on UK compared to US albums. American Capitol had different ideas I guess.
A little Beatles to start the week...ok. Pop in NOWHEREMAN, fill in the rest of the circles, finish up top to bottom. What more do you want on a Monday?
ReplyDeleteNo one from the Carolinas would ever fall into the "Durham trap", because we all know that Durham is actually the location of UNC's hated archival, Duke. Haven't any of you heard of a lovely place called Chapel Hill?
ReplyDeleteWhy this Monday puzzle?
ReplyDeleteHey everybody, today is Paul's 70th birthday!
At least you didn't fall into the THE HAWK trap, like I did. Yes, I know.
ReplyDeleteAny college sports fan from anywhere in the country would know it as well. On the other hand, my initial split-second reaction was to try to make NC A&T fit. Then I pondered what universities might exist in Durham, UK.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, since UNC-Chapel Hill was the nation's first public university and is still one of the best, it's natural that UN_ wouldn't tend to bring UNH to most people's minds. . So I suppose there's the fundamental basis for the trap--the relative obscurity of UNH itself.
OK, so the songs are list but since they're Beatles' songs and today is Sir McCartney's birthday all is forgiven as I -- even now while typing -- am humming "Hey, Jude."
ReplyDeleteI also thought it was interesting to see two circles in each answer except WECANCANWORKITOUT with three. Somehow that makes them not seem so random.
@loren muse smith, I, too, had suckUPs before KISSUPS, both are great!
Only other BOOBOO was CHUm before CHUB.
Easy, breezy Monday just like a delightful Beatle's tune.
NA NA NA NANANA NAAAAAA ....
BOOB...JOB...CHUB.
ReplyDeleteGood puzzle. Theme density way up there. So much so that we got a bonus column. Appropriate theme for the day also.
ReplyDeleteNoticed 2 GOs: 28D GONOW and 45D GOSTALE
Also 4 UNs: 25A UNREAL, 66A UNPOSED, 6D UNSEEN, and 12D UNTO (sort of). Throw in UNH (not really).
These sort of things usually bother some. Generally not me but for some reason today I noticed it.
Never heard of the song NOW HERE MAN ;-)
Andrea needs to sit this guy down and teach him about Monday smoothness, a quality this puzzle sorely lacked.
ReplyDeleteIt's not even nine and I've been singing 6 Beatles songs. Not seven, I don't think I know Golden Slumbers. 7 theme answers is pretty impressive.
ReplyDeleteGood Monday for me, definitely crunchy.
This puzzle inspired me to re-visit Sundays, where I found LENNON/MCCARTNEY/HARRISON/STARR in the grid, top to bottom, left to right. I even managed to envision the circles as a Bong!
ReplyDeleteI am the King of Random Circles!
@Rex - Thanks for pointing out that the UNH is an old trick. If it's been in a puzzle I've solved before, it must not have been so deftly constructed that the UN went in right away and the possible C with "nast."
ReplyDeleteHah! Serves me right. I fell for it HOOKE, line, and sinker. Man, was I upset.
@Mac - I'm right there with you, mentally (mercifully) singing Beatles songs, including, incorrectly thanks to 23D, "All WE NEED is Love."
I saw the "think of what you're saying" clue as my puzzle printed out and it was my first entry. Last was the "n" in GONOW. GOmOW, GOsOW, GOpOW, GObOW didn't work and COW was already in so I couldn't tell it to GO. That didn't sound like a song title anyway unless it is a Dr. Suess book. Go, cow, go.
ReplyDeleteI would rate this easy and fun. No nits.
Save for the PIBB/NOBS crossing, this was pretty easy, especially if you grew up with these songs. NE with SAES was somewhat short of elegant, but it all fell okay. Hand up for not liking RICEU. All in, fun, and happy birthday, Sir Paul!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, Peter Collins, on two puzzles in the last 7 days.
I agree - tougher than the usual Monday. Also fell for UNC.
ReplyDeleteLove all the Beatle"s songs. Will be humming them all day long.
What a great puzzle to start the week. I, too, will be humming all day. The puzzle had more bite than a usual Monday. And a big shout out to Sir Paul on his birthday today
ReplyDeleteThe Gothic cathedral in Koln is stunning as is the modern art museum right next to it. Koln (as opposed to the Americanized Cologne that @doris pointed out 1st thing) is definitely not Monday material!!
ReplyDeleteIn fact, i thought this one was kind of tough - even for a tuesday. Had to do the downs first before i had any hope of getting the theme answers. Favorite of the bunch is Golden Slumbers - probab because I wish I had them more often!!
PU to RICEU -also did not fall for any UN trap as Durham is clearly Blue Devil territory (got an MBA there). and to pick a nit with @anonymous 8:ish - the University of Georgia is proud to call itself the first state-chartered public university!!
Nice tribute puzzle.
“I Don’t Want To Spoil the Party” but,
ReplyDeleteThe good: GUERRE, KISSUPS, RAVING
The bad: KOLN, HOOKE, RICEU
The ugly: SAES, PIBB, any of the 4 “UN” clues
7 theme clues, 15 theme circles, 70 theme letters, an increased grid to 16X15, Peter again gives us too much of a good thing, especially for a Monday puzzle.
My comment on Peter’s puzzle last week was “Nothing succeeds like excess.”
Ditto for today.
So, “I’ll Be On My Way”
Well, for my own reasons I did enjoy this puzzle for a Monday. Beatles songs and the design were a soft spot for me. What can I say? I can nitpick, I can note some non-Monday nasty in there, but for me, it simply comes down to the fact that I just enjoyed solving the heck out of this one. Not going to analyze further why.
ReplyDeleteGolden Slumbers seems to stick out from the rest in terms of difficulty to the average solver -- the rest of them are reasonably well-known, but unless you're an aficionado of the Abbey Road medley (as I am), that one seems likely to cause all kinds of trouble in the middle of the grid.
ReplyDeleteI also note a bit of an imbalance in the theme answers, with five McCartney songs and two Lennon songs. I realize all were officially credited to both of them, but in reality they were pretty much on their own after the early days.
Especially on a Monday, but really any day of the week, using "Suffix with zinc" (64A) to clue ITE is a bit strange!
ReplyDelete@Bob Kerfuffle: you are right. Nice to see you here again.
ReplyDeleteWhere's Jesser?
No problem with this one, as I am a diehard Beatles fan and a '60s band groupie. Happy birthdaym, Sir Paul!
ReplyDeleteIf we have to have 'tribute' puzzles, one honoring these fabulous songs and their writers is OK by me.
ReplyDeleteThe surrounding fill was tough in places! 2 near-Naticks for a Monday is alot...PIBBS/NOBS, CHUB.COHN, though reasonable guesses saved me.
Dec 31 puzzle had my goddaughter (and Re Sox fan) TESSIE as the central answer, today has stepdaughter as the central answer.
I will therefore rework this into a tribute puzzle for her, as I did with the earlier one. What fun!
(The closest I will ever get to constructing is re-constructing...)
Mooer reminds me of Lewis Black's "Moo-cow f&@king milk" routine.
Denny Laine sang Go Now for the Moody Blues. He later joined Paul McCartney's Wings. Wings would occasionally perform Go Now at concerts with Laine on lead vocals.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Zincite
ReplyDeleteBeatles theme might have been continued by clueing 23 down (ALL WE) as"_____are saying is, 'Give Peace a Chance'." But that's another Lennon song and not appropriate for McCartney birthday. Save it until Oct. 9.
ReplyDeleteNever that impressed with the circled-letters-spell-out-the-theme gambit. Seems like you could spell out just about anything by finding the right letters and circling them. Except that, just checked and you it doesn't work for "I need a drink," although it does for "I need some LSD," which is more Beatles appropriate anyway.
Not much to say - nice to see all those Beatles songs, no real problems, KOLN isn't really that hard if you can leave off the umlaut.
ReplyDeleteHowever, if your theme is 7 songs, is it really right to put in GO NOW, an additional but pretty much unrelated song?
Nice. Probably harder for me than for many of you because I was starting a family and an Assistant Professorship when the Beatles invaded.
ReplyDelete@hazel - do you mean the Wallraff-Richartz Museum/Museum Ludwig? Years since I was there but it was indeed magnificent. Don't think the modern art collection was there in the late seventies, or at least I was more interested in the older stuff. And you are right about the magnificence of Der Kölner Dom.
RICE U sucks. We say Rice or Rice University down here.
Tried CHUM @ 545D - decided I could do better than MOOBOOS. D'oh!
Thank you, Mr. Collins.
Since this is a tribute, thought it should be ALL Paul McCartney songs. I enjoyed humming the lyrics and putting in these great songs. Don't even mind inclusion of "GO NOW"- since I love that song...maybe Brian Epstein is the connection?
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday to Sir Paul!
Monkberry Moon Delight!!
Ha, I looked at Riceu and thought it was French too!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this walk down memory lane very much. Throwing in the Moody Blues was a nice touch even though it was their worst song. Thanks to Anon. 10:04 for the Denny Laine trivia. Ties it in nicely. I'll bet Andrea is loving this one. Thanks Mr. Collins and Happy Birthday Paul.
Being a "Paul Girl" who woke up saying, "Wow, Paul is SEVENTY today!," I loved this puzzle just because. Happy birthday, Sir Paul!! Long may you rock an roll!
ReplyDeleteWhile working on the boat a few days ago I played 4 Beatles CD's which included most of their big hits. Boy, did that help with today's puzzle. Some of the lyrics are still playing in my head somewhere.
ReplyDeleteWasn't it known as RICE Institute at one time? I had to correct from RICEI to RICEU.
I doubt this blog will have the same excitement as it had the last time Rex reviewed a PAC puzzle. Sir Doug had a meltdown and Acme turned in her resignation letter. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteAlas, no Acme to offset the Rex slant on a Monday (I'm not even sure if that Mars comment didn't include her).
Notwithstanding I more of less agree with Rex on this one. A tad too complicated for a Monday and one that kisses up to Beatle fans. I even fell into that UNH/UNC trap even tho my younger son graduated from UNH and I spent many days traveling to Durham, which is more famous for the parade scene in Animal House....
JFC
@rc - yes Museum Ludwig!! I was there first in 1983, having just graduated from college. I found the experience of seeing for the first time such a collection of modern art somewhat life changing. i kept a travel journal of that trip - and my favorite entry is trying to describe/explain that Museum Ludwig experience. I've reread it often.
ReplyDeleteI'll join the rest in humming some Beatles today. Fun puzzle but I too thought it was difficult for a Monday. HOOKE, KOLN, COHN, CHUB and PIBB don't seem to belong. I hope @Oren pipes in today and let's us know his take on this one.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of...@Loren, I laughed at your take on the Nast "agitato." The two Nast's marched to very different drummers. THOMAS was the "Prince of caricatures" and thanks to him Santa is now depicted as the plump, white bearded jolly ole fellow we know in today's world. Conde was into the "hoi polloi" - purchased Vogue magazine and turned it into an elite social glam magazine. His "Travel" magazine only featured the very high end rentals throughout the travel industry.
I shall think of @ACME today (and her Friday Karaoke) singing to the likes of Paul and John.
This one seemed quite easy, with all the theme answers in place in no time.
ReplyDeleteStill, a technical question: shouldn't the clue for KOLN indicate that the answer is in German? Or is the word "German" a sufficient hint? I would've expected "Deutsche cathedral city" or "Cathedral city on the Rhein"
Oh man, guys. Speaking on behalf of young crossword players (I'm 21), this puzzle was brutal. I had heard of three of the seven songs in the theme, and without the requisite knowledge of apparently the entire Beatles catalog, I was dead in the water. The fill wasn't any help either - never heard of the Moody Blues, I think I've heard Roy Cohn's name once, at was similarly at sea with "Amons 'n' Andy" (A sitcom from the 20s?! On a Monday?!?!). Just rough, all around. And no less than five answers in foreign languages? Man. I hope next Monday's grid is more in touch with current pop culture...
ReplyDeleteI've been to KOLN, so figured that out once I was able to let go of SUCKUPS. But I could not figure out GOLDENSLUMBERS despite being able to sing the entire song. I just didn't know that was the title and had to do with the crosses. I also thought RICEU was a cheap shot. You could put U on lots of things if we're going to play that game. But over all I liked the puzzle and now have to dig out some old Beatles music to listen to, since it's playing in my head rather loudly.
ReplyDeleteTough! 28A was "Carry That Weight" for both my husband and me - never heard of "Golden Slumbers" nor Moody Blues "Go Now". Due to UNC on 16A, I was with @Loren on 7D (tcoma...?), had no idea what was being clued on 30D (seemed like a non-Monday clue for United), and I really wanted Evil and the Detectives (so non-Disneyish) for 26D - never heard of the other. So I had the following:
ReplyDelete_olden_l_ _ bers
Ack! First Monday I didn't finish in memory. Not a fan, but that is personal sour grapes.
Is saes self-addressed envelopes?
ReplyDeleteThe puzzle might also have credited Thomas Dekker for "Golden Slumbers" as it his poem "Golden Slumbers Kiss Your Eyes" from which McCartney rewrote the following:
ReplyDeleteGolden slumbers kiss your eyes,
Smiles awake you when you rise ;
Sleep, pretty wantons, do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby,
Rock them, rock them, lullaby.
@J.T. Fales - Just wait. Before you know it, the phrase "well, 40 years ago..." will begin to creep into your everyday speach. You'll cringe at first, but then it will become normal. A very sad normal.
ReplyDeleteFriggin young punks!
@ mel ott - Yes. The history of the founding of Rice Institute is pretty fascinating. Mr. Rice was murdered to try to keep him from doing it (family and lawyers wanted the money). But it happened eventually nonetheless. Don;t know when the name was changed to Rice University, but that is what it is now.
ReplyDelete@ J. T. Fales, I feel your pain in reverse many days. If Will wants to throw us old folks a juicy bone to gnaw (or gum) on then we're going to savor it. I get slaughtered by modern pop culture way too often.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, you might want to listen to some Beatles and I definately recommend giving the Moody Blues a try. Don't start with Days of Future Past. Start with To Our Children's Children's Children. Smoke 'em if you got 'em and enjoy!
It must be fascinating to see an envelope address itself.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's just because I grew up in New Hampshire, lived in Durham, NC, and went to graduate school at UNC-Chapel Hill, but I just don't buy that [Durham school] is meant to misdirect.
ReplyDelete@J.T. Fales:
ReplyDeleteSpeaking as another relatively young solver (28), I wouldn't say the theme is inaccessible to the young crowd, at least not entirely. Granted, perhaps I'm a bit unusual in that I grew up listening to a lot of classic rock from the 60s and 70s, but I've heard of all the Beatles theme song answers, even though I didn't know the name of 28-Across was GOLDEN SLUMBERS (can imagine the tune, though). However, while I am also familiar with the Moody Blues, I was not familiar with GO NOW, so I'll agree that 28-Down has a pretty difficult clue for a Monday. A non-musical answer, like "Leave immediately," would have made it much easier to infer.
Some of the other answers that you mentioned gave you trouble (like Amos 'n ANDY) are probably things that, even if you don't know them now, you eventually remember based on repetition. AMOS shows up a lot in crosswords, far more often than ANDY does, and though I've never heard a single minute of that old radio duo, I just know the answer to that one after solving so many crosswords before.
With all of that said, I'm generally not a big fan of puzzles in which the theme answers are just the names of songs, or movies, or books, regardless of which era it is. I usually prefer them to have some thematic element that ties the theme answers together besides who wrote them or starred in them. Like, maybe if all of the theme answers were Beatles songs that referred to colors (GOLDEN SLUMBERS could be one of them, BABY'S IN BLACK could be another, FOR YOU BLUE, etc), or some other connection, then that would at least add a layer to the theme's strength, in my opinion.
(Maybe the theme answer that ties color-coded classic rock songs is RAINBOW CONNECTION?)
Put me in the group that threw down all seven of the song titles without a hitch. But I was thinking as the pattern emerged that this one definitely slants toward senior citizens. So @J. T. Fales, I hear ya!
ReplyDeleteBTW J. T., I hope you become a regular commenter. We need more of the up-and-coming solver's perspective. And help with some of the ultra-contemporary stuff.
Agree with @jberg that having the unrelated song GO NOW in the grid sounded a discordant note. I remember the Moody Blues, but only dimly, as if through a purple haze.
Double digit U-fest puts this puz in my plus column, despite the slightly desperate RICE-U. Enjoyed recalling all the tune lyrics.
ReplyDeleteLiked @Nooner's "You could put U on lots of things..." suggestion. Liked it a lot.
McCartney is 70 already? I'm gonna feel old all dang day. How old is Ringo? Throw me a bone; lowball it.
P.S. @#31*!--Wow, nice shlock movie reference, dude. ("Mars Needs Women", 1967) Think an all-E puz would help 'em out any?
ReplyDeleteWould someone please explain the criticism of 13D PIBB (Mr.___(soft drink))? Isn't Mr. Pibb available nationwide? Is "Dr.___(soft drink) acceptable?
ReplyDeleteThanks. Thought this was an easy puzzle, but then I was in Top 40 radio for 30 years.
foxaroni
@JenCT - that's good, having to sing along. Speed isn't everything.
ReplyDelete@Fales - you gotta get to know COHN if you ever want someone to despise. He was Joe McCarthy's atty. Angels in America portrayed him in a bad light. Check out some newsreels. The sneering rubbery face, alone.
As an old f--t, I make it a point to listen to music and actors referred to here. I prefer it to sports references.
Zincite is Zinc oxide crystal. Pretty.
Saw the Moody Blues in concert many years (decades?) ago.
@RetChem - wow! Looked up a brief Rice History. A lawyer had his butler and valet kill him to get his $ rather than letting it go to a University. He was a handsome man to the end. This would make a great drama.
@Anon 1141 - thank you for helping me remember Dekker. I believe it is in An Elizabethan Songbook, ed. W.H. Auden and Noah Greenberg with sheet music. I know I have a recording of some long dead countertenor singing it.
@Gill
ReplyDeletehoi polloi is, I believe, the opposite of the elite...the common folk or masses
Meant to type "Dr.____(soft drink) PEPPER."
ReplyDeletefoxaroni
@Anonymous 1:06. I've not seen Mr. Pibb around SW Connecticut. Dr. Pepper is around, though.
ReplyDeleteHappy reading medium-challenging for I found it so. Glad for that too. Natick at P-BB/OCEAN-A. Forgot to go back and try to fix it.
ReplyDeleteI'm with @Loren. An onion means a Gibson. Of course, today people call any mixed drink a martini. Tsk.
I will be singing Beatles all day. Happy Birthday, Sir Paul.
Although I don't usually pay much attention to my solving times, this was one of my fastest ever - due mostly to being able to instantly identify most of the songs, with the exception of GOLDEN SLUMBERS, (wanted CARRY THAT WEIGHT), which I still got pretty quickly. Fun!
ReplyDeleteAmos and Andy were in this? I totally missed it, clue and answer. Sheesh.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous 1:11...Of course you're right and I ALWAYS get my OI's mixed up. I meant *Hoity Toity.*
ReplyDeleteAs the line is found at the very end of Golden Slumbers (it's also at the beginning), which segues perfectly into Carry That Weight, I sang that part in my head, and with the length of the answer, I forgot the name of the song and put in CARRYTHEWEIGHT. Feeling a bit ashamed for messing up a Beatles clue
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize it was Pual's birthday while working on the puzzle, and as such was displeased that there were five Paul songs versus two by John. Now that I know it's his birthday, I can't decide if the unbalanced ratio is acceptable, or if it should have been solely a Paul puzzle. I'm no constructor, so I have no idea how hard it would have been to have other songs in lieu of Nowhere Man and Revolution.
And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.
@J.T.: Sometimes clues tend to trend on the less-current side.
ReplyDeleteBut no matter what, this is where puzzles are kind of cool: They require some serious mental agility - in just one corner, you might have to dig out some silent movie actor, something from chem class, a Simpsons reference, a pun, and maybe an Internet meme from 5 years ago within the space of 5 or 10 minutes. So that mental flexibility, the willingness to go where the clues take you, is a big advantage.
When you hit the wall on a clue, find out what the answer is and how it tricked you (note the wordplay, read a Wikipedia article, whatever), and file it away for next time. Especially the short words. They will come back from the puzzle undead to haunt you eventually ;).
@ Rex - I just realized that the circles are not exactly a "shotgun scatter" across the grid. They are all contained in the song titles. Better than random, but a matter of taste how much better.
ReplyDeleteIMO actually a nice accomplishment to select and place song titles such that all letters in LENNON-MCCARTNEY can be circled in proper L to R, up to down order.
This geezer was familiar with only three of the song titles.
Pierre says:
ReplyDeleteeasy breezy Monday. But then I was born in the sixties and grew up with the Beatles.
As any one pointed out GUERRE SAINTE as Holy War? Not much to do with the theme as I see it (REVOLUTION?)
Rex is grumpy today.
Have a nice day.
Pierre.
Retired Chemist, you beat me to the punch. I was quite impressed that Mr. Collins found Beatle song titles in which he could suss out, in order, LENNON MCCARTNEY. I'm sure that's why a lesser known title like GOLDEN SLUMBERS was one of the answers.
ReplyDeleteFar from the circles being randomly placed, they were all in the titles, and added to my appreciation of the puzzle -- though it didn't help my solve.
Found the puzzle Monday easy because I was a Beatles fan...
Thanks to Rex for posting the two versions of Go Now. Never knew the Moodies till much later in their careers (Knights in White Satin, anyone?) so never heard this breakthrough of theirs, much less the original. The original sounds a lot better to these ears, so thanks for helping us connect to the homegrown treasure chest known as American R&B! (A treasure chest for the early Beatles, btw, as Mr. Lennon often pointed out.)
ReplyDeleteEasiest puzzle ever! HB, Paul!
ReplyDeleteWhoops, make that Nights in White Satin. I guess recollecting the 70s made me feel medieval.
ReplyDelete@J.T. Fales: Welcome! I started doing the puzzle every day at exactly your age.
ReplyDeleteSomething that has worked well for me over the years, when I get a word I don't know, is to physically write the word into the grid. REALLY helped me survive the Maleska era.
ETUI? PHOOEY. NENE? Nay, nay!
Midday report of relative difficulty (see my 8/1/2009 post for an explanation of my method):
ReplyDeleteAll solvers (median solve time, average for day of week, ratio, percentile, rating)
Mon 8:47, 6:50, 1.29, 100%, Challenging (highest median solve time of 156 Mondays)
Top 100 solvers
Mon 5:03, 3:41, 1.37, 100%, Challenging (ditto)
Today's solve times are more Tuesday-ish than Monday-ish.
Man, I could not disagree with everyone more. And I am a huge Beatles fan. Of the early Beatles songs, which Lennon and McCartney have long acknowledged they did NOT write together, it is easy to look online and find which ones Paul wrote and which ones John wrote. If this is a birthday tribute to McCartney, what the hell is Lennon doing in here at all? Paul wrote enough Beatles songs on his own to be able to put PAUL MCCARTNEY in circles.
ReplyDeleteAnd conceptually, what is the point of the big paragraph at the top telling us we'll find out who wrote the songs when solving just one theme clue makes it unbelievably obvious? I understand that Monday puzzles are supposed to be easier than the rest of the week, but the theme clues here give new meaning to the term "no-brainer." I could understand this approach if the clues were less obvious - using just "1970 song," for example - but using lyrics from the songs gives everything away so much that the whole explanatory paragraph seems like massive overkill.
And yet, as brainlessly simple as the theme is, the fill words are anything but. I mean, UNH, OTOE, ESO, NOBS, ANI, OSO, ITE, ENTO, GUERRE, KOLN, SAINTE, SAES, ALLWE, UAL, RICEU, ITNO, and OENO in a Monday puzzle? It's embarrassing.
I get it completely that something like this brings back great memories of the Beatles - anything that does this can never be all bad - but as a crossword, in its concept and execution, it's a mess.
Happy B-day, my wife (Pinky) and I saw his show a few years ago at AT&T Park in S.F. Great time.
ReplyDeleteNot a huge fan of:
Three unwords:
UNreal
UNseen
UNposed
The controversy over name order in the song credits is interesting. There was even a law review journal article.
http://www.darbois.net/articles/beatles_lennon_macca.htm
Hello, goodbye: Lennon-McCartney out, McCartney-Lennon in
LARRY McSHANE, Associated Press Writer Tuesday, December 17, 2002
(12-17) 15:42 PST NEW YORK (AP) --
Paul McCartney believes the last shall be first. Yoko Ono believes he wants to rewrite history.
McCartney, after 40 years of second billing to his late partner John Lennon, has turned the tables on his Beatles collaborator by reversing the order of the famous Lennon-McCartney songwriting credit.
On Paul's last project, a two-CD live album, the cute Beatle is now top dog.
"Back in the U.S. Live 2002" includes 19 classic Beatles songs billed as written by "Paul McCartney and John Lennon."
The back-and-forth continues a nasty feud between McCartney and Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, who in the past accused the Beatles bassist of "opening a Pandora's box" by changing the credits.
"This is not a divisive thing," insisted McCartney spokesman Geoff Baker in London. "It's not Lennon or McCartney. Even if Paul did 95 percent or more on these songs, he's not asking that John's name be taken off.
"He just doesn't think it should be first."
Ono's spokesman, Elliott Mintz, disagreed.
"There's no question this is an attempted act of Beatle revisionism," Mintz said Tuesday. "And it does appear to be an attempt to rewrite history."
Mintz said that Ono had no plans to sue McCartney over the swap and was "feeling secure in the fact that the original Lennon-McCartney agreement still stands."
This particular intra-Beatles spat -- one of many since the megaband dissolved in 1970 -- dates back seven years, although it started with "Yesterday."
When the surviving members of the Fab Four began releasing their acclaimed "Anthology" series in 1995, McCartney approached Ono about flipping the Lennon-McCartney credit for the hit single.
Ono, the guardian of the Lennon legacy since her husband's 1980 murder by a deranged fan, turned him down. She and her attorney did not return calls seeking comment.
"It actually is one of the reasons we're not the best of friends," McCartney confessed in an interview with Reader's Digest last year.
No one disputes that McCartney wrote "Yesterday" by himself, or that he was the only Beatle in the studio for its recording. The tale of McCartney's waking up one morning with the tune in his head is part of Beatles' lore, as is its working title: "Scrambled Eggs."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lennon%E2%80%93McCartney
Note: Dear Prudence:
The subject of the song is actress Mia Farrow's sister, Prudence Farrow, who was present when The Beatles went to India to study with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
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ReplyDeleteSo Paul McCartney just ripped the lyrics from the Dekker poem without any credit given on Abbey Road? Wow, that is the cheesiest thing I've seen (though be it ex post facto) in a while. Was there any controversy about that? Was that just okay because they were the Beatles? I mean, that's artistic (if not ethical) blasphemy, is it not?
ReplyDeleteSo now we're blaming Peter Collins for not resolving all Beatles' authorship issues in his circles?
ReplyDeleteEven Paul and Yoko get along better now.
It would be a good puzzle without the circles and they add a little extra by their appearance. A fun little tribute puzzle. That's all.
Maybe if we post really well Tinker Bell (err Andrea) will live.
ReplyDelete** (2 Stars) Great theme but as Tobias noted a little herby-jerky.
I am the Walrus.
Well, I had not been feeling particularly old till @BigSteveSF's post: "...the megaband dissolved in 1970 ..."
ReplyDelete@dk - post happy thoughts...
hmm Peter Collins + circles. What will Rex think?
ReplyDeleteNow that's Monday easy...
All familiar songs except for Golden Slumber...
First, as a major Beatles fan (Abbey Road is one of my all time favorite albums) and owner of original vinyl album versions of all the songs, I really liked this one. So, Rex is right, Beatles fans won't care about flaws etc. This, was a medium for me.
ReplyDeleteSecond, as Sfingi mention, Tony Kushner's Angles in America is a good way to learn a bit about Roy Cohn. Plus, the HBO version is an amazing multiple Emmy winning production that I highly recommend.
Third, my 13 year old granddaughter correctly finished last Monday's ACM & MB puzzle (remember she gets to look stuff up but has to do it by herself). In think she may be hooked and I wanted to thank Andrea and Michael for her nice intro to the NYT. I'm curious how she will handle this one which although very google friendly has more than a couple of tricky crosses.
@J.T. -- Just keep at it. Getting good at this is not unlike getting a four year degree.
Dang! That should be Angels in...
ReplyDeleteI laughed out loud at the brilliance of the zincITE clue. If you're stuck with ITE and it's Monday, what's a better clue?
ReplyDeleteWhat else can follow zinc? Zincish? Zincism? Zincoid? I never heard of zincite, but it made sense that any reactive metal can have an -ite. I entered it as a gimme, confident even though I'd never heard the word. That struck me as brilliant Monday cluing for a sucky entry.
@retired_chemist & @Lewis ... thanks for bringing up the point that the circles spelling out LENNON and MCCARTNEY only appeared in the theme answers. I thought that was what I was saying this morning, obviously coffee deprived, when I said, "I also thought it was interesting to see two circles in each answer except WECANCANWORKITOUT with three. Somehow that makes them not seem so random."
ReplyDeleteI forgot to mention that these circles only appeared in the song titles. That's when I started counting how many in each answer.
Sometimes I can be such a ditz.
Anybody reading that comment would just think I'm an idiot.
Me included.
O
@Short Shrift: I'm seeing these Knights in White Satin!
ReplyDeleteJewel's Knights without Armor is really Nights without Armour.
@Placemat - The original Golden Slumbers was Elizabethan, thus way out of copyright. Actually, there was no copyright in those days; that's why Shaks. hid and memorized his plays. Further, the Beatles used only the one line.
ReplyDeleteMy Baby Sister followed old Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to IA. Hubster always called him Mareesh Ma-sheesh. This town, Fairfield now has amazing Hindu temples visible across the corn fields. The locals called the followers "Roos," for Gurus. The town is chock full of alternative medicine practitioners, including Rolfers (if you are a masochist).
On the Ono subject, I remember someone saying Chapman should have aimed a little to the right (or was it left?).
@Jae - Do you remember when Barbara Walters dated Roy Cohn? Or was his "beard," as some writers said. She aparently owed hin for getting her father off of some minor charge involving his NYC club, the Latin Quarter.
A Beatles puzzle!!!! A Monday!!!!!!! Aw c'mon, if some of your sweet comments were meant to lure me out of the Outback Bush, you succeeded!!!
ReplyDeleteLoved this puzzle...7 theme
answers and getting the letters of LENNON and MCCARTNEY in a row, in
songs??????????!!!!!!!!!!!! On Sir Paul's bday???????
(@Tobias...as I said to you off line, F* smoothness! there are so many layers to this puzzle...I often think non-constructors or some who fancy themselves would-be constructors miss out on Peter's multi-layered brilliance, tho that is easy to do when the day has been miscast...or doesn't easily fit into a category. I think haivng this appear on Sir Paul's bday trumps the fact that it's maybe not really a Monday. I'm with the other huge fancythemselvesmajorBeatlesfan and I didn't know the title GOLDENSLUMBERS.
(@GillIP come join me, the Beatles live karaoke is the FIRST MONDAY!!! of the month at Cafe Royale in SF...I even tried to change my flight here so I could go!)
(
If I had any quibble it would also be the preponderance of UNs(Tho to have @Masked and Anon complain about a U shows how serious this was!) and perhaps there shouldn't have been two GOs, or other songs...but in the
clip that @Rex posted, "The Moody Blues" were introduced as the other
group that Brian Epstein managed or something like that! And the tie-ins between the lead singer and Paul made it an extra extra extra dollop of elegance, esp if it was intended!)
Seriously, he got the letters in songs in the right order and had the
titles match in length! That there was even a song with MC in it, that could fit in that part of the puzzle, takes my breath away.
That's what's great about this blog's comment section that so many are able to point out the additional depth of this puzzle as well as all the cool Beatles trivia.
And maybe that young 21 yr old solver will be introduced to something that will forever change his life, instead of having only contemporary stuff in there...It's amazing that the Beatles are still not only contemporary...and altho I'm more Lennon than McCartney, there can be no disputing that Sir Paul has probably brought more joy to millions of people on EARTH than any other person.
And of course I'd like to thank @jae (I will pass your comments on to my pal/collaborator Michael B who is not a blog person and probably the better for it!!! We, by the way, often discuss whose name should appear first on which puzzle...tho Michaels-Blake is no Lennon and McCartney, the issue of credit is an important tricky one, esp in collaborations that are turly collaborations. he is very gracious about my getting extra attention some times, unwarranted, bec he knows who he is and what he did...but we still wrestle with it)
Anyway, more importantly, I'm thrilled about your grandchild!!! I don't think this puzzle would be a good example for her second attempt...really it's a Tues/Wed in content, too specific a theme, skews older. If you did it (COME) TOGETHER, and gently coaxed thru it by rephrasing the clues and going thru them to show her what the constructor was getting at, that would be tons more helpful than having her look things up. (that's what I do with my young cousins...i simply pick out the ones they will for sure get, start there, and then sort of say, "ok, now, three letters starting with B for "grand"...what are some of the meanings of "Grand?""
...and when they hit on "BIG!" it's Bingo!!!
In honor of Father's Day, will once again mention that that's how I came to puzzles...Did the Sunday NYT on my dad's knee and I think it's a sweeter way to learn, rather than being sent to a dictionary/google.
oops, that last comment was from me, ACME! I can't believe I forgot to put my name after all these years!
ReplyDeleteOh wait! how bizarre, they are not asking for my name on this computer...maybe it's bec I'm still in the land of Oz?!
It was a Monday puzzle with Beatles. Thanks for posting the great Bessie Banks version of "Go Now"!
ReplyDelete@Sfingi--
ReplyDeleteGolden slumbers kiss your eyes,
Smiles awake you when you rise;
Sleep, pretty wantons, do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby
--Thomas Dekker
Golden slumbers fill your eyes
Smiles awake you when you rise
Sleep pretty darling do not cry
And I will sing a lullaby
--Paul McCartney
Pretty plagiaristic. It's not a matter of copyright, but one of integrity. On "Abbey Road" Thomas Dekker is given no credit as the source of a stanza that Mr. McCartney obviously drew from heavily--more than "heavily"; McCartney allowed lyrics of which he was not the originator to be attributed to himself. And the "Good artists borrow, great artists steal" credo is an invalid defense here, as that applies not to plagiarism but to the idea of many "original" ideas being built by standing on the shoulders of predecessors.
Legality aside, it's artistically criminal. It's cheesy. It's dishonorable.
This week's relative difficulty ratings. See my 8/1/2009 post for an explanation. In a nutshell, the higher the ratio, the higher this week's median solve time is relative to the average for the corresponding day of the week.
ReplyDeleteAll solvers (this week's median solve time, average for day of week, ratio, percentile, rating)
Mon 8:48, 6:50, 1.29, 100%, Challenging (highest median solve time of 156 Mondays)
Top 100 solvers
Mon 4:47, 3:41, 1.30, 100%, Challenging (highest median solve time of 156 Mondays)
Instead of GOLDEN SLUMBERS, ALL TOGETHER NOW works. So does I'M ONLY SLEEPING. So do I'VE GOT A FEELING, ONE AND ONE IS TWO, WHAT YOU'RE DOING.
ReplyDeleteOr you could go 15s and use GOOD DAY SUNSHINE or YELLOW SUBMARINE along with CARRY THAT WEIGHT.
The point is, finding pairs that work with the circles is not the hard part.
And ZINCOID is a word.
UNC is not in Durham, it is in Chapel Hill.
ReplyDeleteWho's the cartoonest T.c. OMAS? Obviously, I don't know, so hand up for UNc.
ReplyDeleteGuessed the "B" in NOBS/PIBB. Guessed the "N" in ANI/GONOW.
To Syndies, yesterday's Sunday puzzle kicked my "A"ss.
will you still need me, will you still feed me when I'm sixty four?
I know you younger folks can't believe it, but the only one of the referenced songs I have ever heard of ( and, I think, heard) is HEY JUDE. Even so, the puzzle fell fairly easily. A slight hang-up remembering MR PIBB and don't like SAES, but that was about it. The titles, while unknown, worked about to be understandable words and phrases.
ReplyDeleteCan't say the same for the Captcha : ermaugu. Really?
This oldie but goodie is a Beatles fan too--but in all my born days I never heard of GOLDENSLUMBERS. That one I had to get on crosses, which is the only thing that even threatened to nudge this puzzle off the "easy" mark.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of it was a nice little nostalgic (day) trip (per) for me. One letter written over: had to change CHUm, 'cause I didn't think "mOOBOOS" could be right.
Anyone else notice we have a 16x15 today?
I thought Denny Laine was a barber? You know..."Denny Laine, the barber, shaves another customer..."
ReplyDeleteI don't get the Monday paper delivered any more, so I just came here to see what I missed. I think probably what I missed was my fastest time ever.
"GO NOW" (which as a teen I used to sing as "Go Nad") appeared on McCartney's Wings Over America album.
@evan 12:45pm, there is a big difference between 21 and 28 culturally. That said, I'm certain my 19-year-old daughter would have done quite well on this one. (she is, after all, my 19-year-old daughter)
@ SethG 8:09 AM "ONE AND ONE IS TWO"
ReplyDeleteDon't you think that one might be a bit of a stretch for a Monday? Or a Saturday? Probably better known as a Rutles lyric. Nice pull, though.
The music I grew up with predated the Beatles by at least a decade, which made this one pretty tough. I needed most of the crosses before I could suss out the theme answers. Not having heard of GOLDEN SLUMBERS, and mis-spelling MICHEaLE didn't help either. This was my problem, not the fault of the puzzle, which was quite impressive. Well done, PC.
ReplyDelete@JFC/Annon The parade scene in Animal House was filmed in Cottage Grove Oregon, a little town south of Eugene. They raided the local unemployment office to find enough extras for the crowds.
@SIS I'm in mourning....they traded Ichiro to the Yanks.
@ginger, don't mourn. We've had the best of the class act of Ichiro. I hope he wins a World Series with the hated Yankees.
ReplyDelete@SIS So True, and yes, if anyone deserves that ring, it's ICHIRO!
ReplyDelete