Words: 72
Average Length: 5.33
Yet another music recommendation for y’all (actually a double): The clue for 28 Down mentions Drive-By Truckers, an excellent band and one-time home of the phenomenally talented Jason Isbell. His album “Southeastern” is way up on my most-played list; it’s filled with emotionally raw, evocative, brave, rocking, instantly memorable songs. You’re welcome, again.
Words: 24
Average Length: 4.67
By chance, this grid includes answers/clues related to two shows that, to virtually the entire Earth, are the height of musical theatre – but, to me, are fatally ill-conceived. The first, 8 Across, has terrific music but an outrageous plot. The second, Rent (see clue for 3 Down), has even better music but struck me as whiny. Having said that, (1) Jonathan Larson was a genius, and his early death was tragic, and (2) I’ve never seen 3 Down, so it may be the whininess carries through from the original.
I will take every opportunity to mention The [16 Down] Empire in my puzzles. They were (until their breakup in April 2022) a group of stellar Australian musicians who wrote infectious songs and played an exhilarating mix of rock, jazz, Latin, reggae, music hall, and any other musical genre you can think of. If you don’t know them, start with their second album, “Two Shoes,“ which is in my top 5 most-played of all time. You’re welcome.
Words: 79 (15×16 grid)
Average Length: 4.96
To quote the endlessly quotable Bob Dylan, “you don’t need a weather man to know which way the wind blows.” (“Subterranean Homesick Blues”). A musical meteorologist will do just fine, as this puzzle reveals.
Words: 16
Average Length: 5.00
I hope you enjoy this week’s MMM. Starting with today’s grid, I plan to write a few totally subjective sentences about one or two entries in each MMM. Here goes:
8 Across (ranked by Rolling Stone as the 243rd greatest song ever) is the most radical track on Revolver, which at the time was the most radical album in pop music history (and is Rolling Stone’s 11th greatest album ever). It’s a bleak, beautiful song with a propulsive melody and wistful lyrics (mostly by Paul) and a terrific, jagged George Martin string arrangement.
Revolver is my favorite Beatles album (Rubber Soul is second), but 8 Across is only my fourth favorite song on the album. I generally prefer John’s songs to Paul’s, and two of his tunes on Revolver – She Said She Said and I’m Only Sleeping – take first and second. Paul’s masterpiece, Here There and Everywhere, ranks third for me.
Words: 66
Average Length: 5.82
Difficulty: Whose words these are I think you know/My themeless puzzles challenge though/There is no need for you to fear/You always can to Google go! (With apologies to Robert Frost.)
I’ve been on a poetry-reading kick for several months; inevitably, that newfound interest is seeping into my grids, which accounts for the grid-spanners at 18 and 51 Across. Both are lines from well-known poems that are powerful and devastating, in very different ways.
I encountered 12 Across in a very good book my son and I read as part of our 2-person book group: “The Future Starts Here: Adventures in the Twenty-First Century,” by John Higgs. Higgs is a thought-provoking, entertaining British writer who seems to know brilliant, creative, cool people in all areas of human endeavor. (The book we’re currently reading, which I also strongly recommend, is a remarkable family history by Ingrid Rojas Contreras entitled “The Man Who Could Move Clouds.”)
There are certainly simpler ways to clue 16 Across, but I wanted to use a lyric from all-time favorite Joni Mitchell, who recently made an inspirational return to the Newport Folk Festival. No apologies for the groaner of a clue for 26 Across; I figured I’d work the poetry angle into a pun to draw attention away from the fact that the answer is arrant crosswordese. Finally, as noted in the clues, after I finished the grid I somehow ended up with five entries clues relating to Greek mythology. I’ll sign off by saying, in the name of Apollo (god of the sun, music, and poetry), please enjoy the puzzle and come back Wednesday for Mostly Musical Mini 18.
Words: 76
Average Length: 5.03
Difficulty: Like summer reading (not the school variety)
Here’s a gentle grid to usher in August, prime time for lazing in the sun with a book, listening to the waves lap against the shore, and looking up an hour later to realize you haven’t read a page but instead fell asleep and are now approaching lobsterhood. Stay sunscreened, my friends!
If you like my puzzles, it’d be great if you would “subscribe” to my site. You’ll be informed whenever I drop a new puzzle, and I’ll possibly show up a little higher in search results. Win Win.
Last self-promotion: If you like to travel please check out (and follow if you like) my newly resurrected travel blog, Puffinless Travel, here. I’ve recently added write-ups of a trip to Antarctica in Feb. 2022 and a hiking trip in Wales in July 2022.
Words: 70
Average Length: 5.20
Difficulty: Like swinging convincingly in 5/4 time
On my best days playing alto sax, my tone was a pale imitation of Paul Desmond’s crystal, liquid, heavenly sound. Desmond was a marvel – a soloist whose intelligence and grace made his lines seem inevitable, and a composer of one of the very greatest jazz classics (see 60 Across), track three on the Dave Brubeck Quartet’s hugely influential Time Out album (one of the best-selling jazz albums of all time). If you know the tune, the puzzle should be medium difficulty; if you don’t, it’ll be tougher. Check out this live performance. Desmond’s sinuous solo builds tension and release over a hypnotic, two-chord drone (Eb minor-Bb minor). Brubeck follows with a brief, mysterious piano solo far removed from his usual crashing chords. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the puzzle – and I really hope you enjoy the tune and give Desmond and the Dave Brubeck Quartet a listen.
Words: 24
Average Length: 4.67
Difficulty: Maybe a tad tougher than usual. Or maybe not. I don’t know.
This week’s MMM features a brilliant musician who is also very funny (whom you all know), another brilliant musician who is also very funny (whom you probably don’t know but should), a major earworm, and a smattering of rock, K-Pop, standards, and rap. Enjoy!
Jeff's Puzzles