Perhaps a tad surprisingly, Hob is occupying the Friday slot this week. Perhaps we have an anniversary puzzle in store …
One or two of the clues suggest a Beatles theme, and indeed today marks the fiftieth anniversary of the release of the Let It Be album, references to which pepper the clues and solutions alike. I may not have identified all of them, so please feel free to bring any omissions to my attention. I hope lovers of the Beatles will find this a fitting tribute to an iconic album.
It has been a busy day here, hence the late posting, for which I apologise. Nevertheless, I think I have managed to parse all but 8 to my satisfaction, although quite a lot of the wordplay is rather intricate and took some unpicking, e.g. at 16. Music lovers or not, Hob has given us a good workout today.
My favourite clues today were 15, for the misleading reference to Little Mix; and 28, for managing to incorporate two of our best-known Olympic runners into the wordplay.
*(…) indicates an anagram; definitions are italicised; // separates definitions in multiple-definition clues
| Across | ||
| 05 | COCKSCOMB | Male members search carefully for pot plant
COCKS (=male members, i.e. penises) + COMB (=search thoroughly); a cockscomb is one of various plants, such as the yellow rattle and the sainfoin |
| 08 | USAGE | Handling what’ll go in text for you: blue, short truncated version of 10
U (=what’ll go in text for you, i.e. in textspeak) + SA<d> (blue, depressed; “short” means last letters is dropped) + GE<t back> (=entry at 10; “truncated version of” only first few letters are used) |
| 10 | GET BACK | Retrieve some quite good content?
<qui>TE G<ood>; cryptically, “get back, i.e. reversed, is some of the content of “quite good”; Get Back is a track (=number) on the 1970 Beatles’ album Let It Be (=entry at 15) |
| 11 | I ME MINE | Number of Eimi’s first that’s between a couple of Hob’s
E<imi> (“first” means first letter only) in [I’M (=Hob’s, i.e. Hob is) + MINE (=Hob’s, i.e. belonging to Hob); I Me Mine is a track (=number) on the 1970 Beatles’ album Let It Be (=entry at 15) |
| 12 | SCRUB | Axe crew found half-cut in warship
CR<ew> (“half-cut” means 2 of 4 letters only are used) in SUB (=warship, i.e. submarine) |
| 13 | MAGGIE MAE | Number one in game twice rearranged
I (=one) in *(GAME + GAME); “rearranged” is anagram indicator; Maggie Mae is is a track (=number) on the 1970 Beatles’ album Let It Be (=entry at 15) |
| 14 | ONE | Single number following IXOIX?
The reference is to One After 909, a track (=number) on the 1970 Beatles’ album Let It Be (=entry at 15); in Roman numerals, 909 could be broken down and represented as IX O IX |
| 15 | LET IT BE | Album from Little Mix, one left out by editor initially
*(LITT<l>E) + B<y> E<ditor> (“initially” means first letters only); “one left (=L) out” means one letter “l” is dropped from anagram, indicated by “mix”; the album Let It Be by the Beatles was released exactly 50 years ago today, on 8 May 1970 |
| 18 | APT | Fitting in Dig A Pony essentially, before end of set
<dig>A P<ony> (“essentially” means middle two letters only) + <se>T (“end of” means last letter only); Dig A Pony is a track (=number) on the 1970 Beatles’ album Let It Be (=entry at 15) |
| 19 | FOOLPROOF | Sweet little piano on which 10 played? That’s sure to work
FOOL (=sweet) + P (=piano; “little” indicates abbreviation) + ROOF (=on which Get Back (=entry at 10) played, i.e. at the Beatles’ Rooftop Concert in 1969) |
| 23 | EATEN | Consumed with envy originally, by a number having more than one 27
E<nvy> (“originally” means first letter only) + A + TEN (=number having more than one digit (=entry at 27)) |
| 25 | ONESELF | Emphatically, the third person taking Ecstasy’s being like Hob
ON (=taking, of a drug) + E (=Ecstasy)’S + ELF (=(a) being like hob, i.e. a supernatural creature, fairy) |
| 26 | UNAIRED | Rain due – game not broadcast
*(RAIN DUE); “game” is anagram indicator |
| 27 | DIG IT | Number one from 15
DIGIT (=number); Dig It is a track (=number) on the 1970 Beatles’ album Let It Be (=entry at 15) |
| 28 | SOTTO VOCE | Having lowered the tone like this, poor Ovett heartlessly tormented Coe
SO (=like this) + (OV<e>TT) + *(COE); “heartlessly” means middle letter is dropped; “poor” and “tormented” are both anagram indicators |
| Down | ||
| 01 | SCOT-FREE | Escaping penalty if second bed unoccupied
S (=second) + COT (=bed) + FREE (=unoccupied, vacant) |
| 02 | ISTANBUL | City newly built, as last of seven
*(BUILT AS + <seve>N); “last of” means last letter only is used in anagram, indicated by “newly” |
| 03 | HUMERI | Stink over Queen Elizabeth I’s bones
HUM (=stink) + ER (=Queen Elizabet) + I |
| 04 | BARIUM | 9 of Beatlemania Abbey Road inspired, upsetting Merseyside initially
B<eatlemania> A<bbey> R<oad> I<nspired> U<psetting> M<erseyside>; “initially” means first letters only are used; barium is an element (=entry at 9) |
| 05 | CAGES | Avant-garde barman’s places behind bars
The reference is to avant-garde American composer (=”barman”) John Cage (1912-92) |
| 06 | OAKUM | Fibre from tree Greek character’s going up
OAK (=tree) + UM (MU=Greek character; “going up” indicates vertical reversal) |
| 07 | BRIDGET | Game time for a Saint
BRIDGE (=game, of cards) + T (=time) |
| 09 | ELEMENT | Member of group lent me Beatle’s last output
*(LENT ME + <beatl>E); “last” means last letter only is needed for anagram, indicated by “output” |
| 14 | OFF-ROAD | On rough terrain? Not on 15’s long and winding track
OFF (=not on) + ROAD (refers to The Long and Winding Road, a track on Let it Be) |
| 16 | TWO OF US | First track setters, after tense outburst from one of them?
T (=tense, in grammar) + WOOF (=outburst from one of them, i.e. setter dogs) + US (=setters, of crosswords); Two of Us was originally released as the opening track on Let It Be, hence “first track” |
| 17 | ELEVATOR | Lift veto Real violated
*(VETO REAL); “violated” is anagram indicator |
| 18 | ANTERIOR | Adult with secret, first to be outed earlier
A (=adult) + <i>NTERIOR (=secret, innermost; “first to be outed” means first letter is dropped) |
| 20 | ON EDGE | Playing advantage, so I’ve got a feeling of nervous anticipation
ON (=playing, performing) + EDGE (=advantage, as in competitive edge) |
| 21 | PRESTO | Very quickly forgetting name of 15’s keyboard player
PRESTO<n> (=Let It Be’s keyboard player, i.e. Billy Preston); “forgetting name (=N)” means letter “n” is dropped |
| 22 | FAULT | Doctor starts to fly across the universe, lamenting poor service
*(F<ly> A<cross> T<he> U<niverse> L<amenting>); “starts to” means first letters only are needed for anagram, indicated by “doctor” |
| 24 | NUDGE | Wearing flesh colour, good for a jog
G (=good) in NUDE (=flesh colour) |
Not sure whether Let It Be deserves the same plaudits as Sgt Pepper or Abbey Road but indeed, it was fifty years ago today.
There’s three more references in the clues in order to cover all the tracks: I’ve Got A feeling (20d), For You Blue (8ac) and Across The Universe (22d).
Although the theme was clear enough, there was still some work to do.
I found 8ac (USAGE) and 14ac (ONE) a bit odd but, apart from those, an enjoyable ride.
Many thanks to RR for the blog & Hob for the puzzle.
By 1970, I was well into listening to classical music. (I remember it as the year of Beethoven’s 200th birthday.) I’d heard of Let it Be but didn’t know it was an album, so this was a bit of a struggle. In the end I had to find a track listing to get 11ac, having guessed the rest.
When I saw it wasn’t Phi today, I immediately started looking for a VE Day theme.
This took some geting into but once we spotted the theme things began to fall into place, although we had to do a bit of delving to tease out all the thematic entries/references – for example the keyboard player. And we needed the blog fof the parsing of ONESELF.
As is often the case with us, favourites were non-thematic; today they were SOTTO VOCE and HUMERI.
Thanks, Hob and RatkojaRiku
Afraid it’s a thumbs down from me. Having tracks from the album as a ghost theme would have been a good idea. Something for those in the know to enjoy. But having it as a need-to-know theme? I think not. I solved it but only because I had access to the internet so could look up the tracks. Also, I parsed 8a as in the blog but felt that this was either a poor clue or I had misparsed it. Hopefully the latter.
A theme even I managed to spot early on. Agree with @1 Sil van den Hoek about this album, which I, and many others, found a big disappointment. Put in FAUST (doctor) for FAULT but apart from that knew enough of the tracks to nut out the rest.
Thanks to Hob for the ingenuity and to RatkojaRiku for the blog – except, I have to say, the relentless use of Beatle’s instead of Beatles’ for the possessive.
There was a slight difference in the version of this puzzle published in my newspaper in New Delhi. There was no 18 down, it was tagged to 14 across.
The clue read: 14/18D IXOIXI (3,5,3)
the solution of which was the track ONE AFTER 9O9 in the album Let It Be.
i guess the 9s didn’t pass editorial scrutiny and ANTERIOR, with the same crossers, came in as a substitute
@gwep – that’s what happens when you cut and paste a piece of text: wrong spellings get repeated too. I hope that all the occurrences have been corrected now. Interestingly, 9 relies on Beatle being in singular for the clue to work.
@h.eckler – thanks for bringing the alternative clue at 14A/18D to our attention
I think some of the criticism here is a bit harsh. I can’t stand the Beatles, and know next to nothing about them. But Hob’s fair and lucid clueing meant it was possible to get the song titles without actually knowing them, and to be confident that the answer was right.
The only one I couldn’t parse was the IXOIX one. The answer was obvious but I assumed that there was a song called “I kiss love, I kiss one” which sounds like the kind of drivel that might be a Beatles song title. The blog put me right there, although I prefer my version!
Not so long ago Hob did a Berlioz themed puzzle, and I could rely on knowledge for that one. In this case it says a lot for the quality of Hob’s clues that I was able to finish it!