Hi all. What is the answer? That is the question …
The preamble:
All occurrences bar one of the same letter must be replaced in the initially filled grid as suggested by a song title, to be written underneath (five words). Solvers must choose corrections such that in grid order they give THE ANSWER, part of another song by the same musician. The eight across clues to unchanged entries each contain that same letter exactly once; this must be replaced before solving. In clue order, correct replacements name the musician. All changes create new words.
A nice steady solve, with not too much to worry about other than the eight clues which would need a letter switched. It became apparent fairly early that the letter in question would be T, but I avoided paying attention to the replacement letters until the grid was filled. When I did, I found:
BOB DYLAN
So what is THE ANSWER, my friend? If your first thought was the same as mine your first thought was correct! Sure enough, corrections could be made to the Ts in the grid, maintaining real words, to give:
BLOWIN’ IN THE WIND
At this point I was momentarily confused as to why T … but then looked again at the preamble and was reminded that a different Dylan song suggests the replacements. What could that be?
THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGIN’
I can’t argue with that. Thanks Ifor!
| # | ANSWER | Clue with definition underlined | |
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and ANSWER letters in bold caps | |||
| Across | |||
| 1a | TOMB | Stolen jewellery at first buried in vault (4) | |
| TOM (stolen jewellery) + at first Buried | |||
| 5a | TAMENESS | Hardy character having final word in absence of spirit (8) | |
| TESS (Hardy character) containing (having … in) AMEN (final word) | |||
| 12a | SNEAKER | Canvas shoe [t]<b>orn during rake’s manoeuvring (7) | B |
| NE (born) during an anagram of (… manoeuvring) RAKE’S | |||
| 13a | GUACOS | Gauchos in cha[t]<o>s ignoring hard American climbers (6) | O |
| GAUC[h]OS anagrammed (in chaos) without (ignoring) H (hard) | |||
| 14a | CLARTS | Tyke’s mud heading to Lancaster in wagons (6) | |
| The first letter of (heading to) Lancaster in CARTS (wagons) | |||
| 16a | TICH | Small guy yearning to have object of self-consciousness delayed (4) | |
| ITCH (yearning) with I (object of self-consciousness) later (delayed) | |||
| 18a | LA SCALA | Endless scale, li[t]<b>erally in manner of opera house (7, two words) | B |
| Endless SCALe, anagrammed (liberally) + À LA (in manner of) | |||
| 19a | UNTO | Discount officially holds until finished (4) | |
| DiscoUNT Officially holds the answer | |||
| 20a | CHEVET | Bridge avoiding almost all eastern end of church (6) | |
| CHEV[al]ET (bridge) avoiding ALl without its last letter (almost …) | |||
| 22a | NONSENSE | Number one’s wicke[t]<d> keeps being rubbish … (8) | D |
| N + ONE’S anagrammed (wicked) contains (keeps) ENS (being) | |||
| 23a | STUM | … must add up over time (4) | |
| SUM (add up) around (over) T (time) | |||
| 24a | RATCH | Chart rocks in stroll across the Pennines (5) | |
| CHART is anagrammed (rocks) | |||
| 26a | RITE | Performance fit to be reported (4) | |
| Homophone of (… to be reported) RIGHT (fit) | |||
| 28a | SHEEPISH | Embarrassed someone originally den[t]<y>ing new car in his cheaper fake (8) | Y |
| Someone originally + removing (denying) an anagram of (new) CAR in an anagram of (… fake) HIS [c]HE[a]PE[r] | |||
| 32a | TIPPER | Historic sort of ale for each following reversal of depression (6) | |
| PER (for each) following reversal of PIT (depression) | |||
| 33a | STEN | Firearm switched sides of wagon in Wild West (4) | |
| N replacing W (switched sides of WagoN) in an anagram of (wild) wEST | |||
| 34a | UPCLOSE | Very near [t]<l>o cusp skewing end of curve (7) | L |
| LO CUSP anagrammed (skewing) + the end of curvE | |||
| 37a | SHET | Initially hope springs eternal, then blasted local’s closed! (4) | |
| First letters of (initially) Hope Springs Eternal, Then anagrammed (blasted) | |||
| 38a | STRING | Something to tie stocking when zip’s cut out (6) | |
| ST[o]RING (stocking) when O (zip) is removed (cut out) | |||
| 39a | HOLMIA | Lunar module, one shielded by ho[t]<a> oxide (6) | A |
| LM (lunar module) and I (one) inside (shielded by) HOA | |||
| 40a | REFEREE | Official enclosure in Hampden pi[t]<n>ches sound from Ibrox (7) | N |
| REE (enclosure in Hampden) surrounds (pinches) FERE (sound from Ibrox) | |||
| 41a | PLACE MAT | Protection for board came out in previous plan (8, two words) | |
| An anagram of (… out) CAME in PLAT (previous plan) | |||
| 42a | SILT | Sediment moving left to right in narrow opening (4) | |
| Moving L (left) to the right in SLIT (narrow opening) | |||
| Down | |||
| 2d | ONLINE | Person receiving nothing back using WhatsApp, perhaps? (6) | |
| ONE (person) taking in (receiving) NIL (nothing) back | |||
| 3d | MEAN | Poor design (4) | |
| Double definition | |||
| 4d | BAR-ROOM | Snug, perhaps without space (7) | |
| BAR (without) + ROOM (space) | |||
| 6d | AESCHNA | Some dragonflies are finally emerging from changes in development (7) | |
| A (are) + finally emerginG away from CHAN[g]ES anagrammed (in development) | |||
| 7d | EGMA | Shakespeare’s riddle mistakenly spoilt game (4) | |
| An anagram of (spoilt) GAME | |||
| 8d | NURSE SHARK | Ambush predator tends to listen (10, two words) | |
| NURSES (tends to) + HARK (listen) | |||
| 9d | SCIAENID | Drum case I rattled; underlying racket returns (8) | |
| An anagram of (… rattled) CASE I; underneath it DIN (racket) is reversed (returns) | |||
| 10d | SOCLES | Plain faces that will do callers choosing the odds (6) | |
| SO (that will do) + CaLlErS choosing the odds | |||
| 11d | ASHAKE | Quivering once old pain has moved over (6) | |
| AKE (old pain) with an anagram of (… moved) HAS above (over) | |||
| 12d | SCHUSS | Slippery slope in chart engulfed by suspicion (6) | |
| CH. (chart) engulfed by SUSS (suspicion) | |||
| 15d | OLEO | Texan spread guacamole on wraps (4) | |
| GuacamOLE On surrounds (wraps) the answer | |||
| 17d | SCORPIONIC | Last of corps posted to the front charged with virulent hatred (10) | |
| CORPS with the end letter moved to the beginning (last … posted to the front) + IONIC (charged) | |||
| 21d | FUELL CELL | 50% electric works, charging complete power source (8, two words) | |
| 50% ELECtric is anagrammed (works) going into (charging) FULL (complete) | |||
| 25d | CHELSEA | University briefly occupying scattered parts of each side of London (7) | |
| LSE (university briefly) inside (occupying) an anagram of (scattered parts of) EACH | |||
| 26d | RASORES | Abandoned group of domesticated birds grazes earlier before being eaten (7) | |
| RASES (grazes), OR (earlier before) inside (being eaten) | |||
| 27d | ENNAGE | Anger revising right to note measure of this clue’s length? (6) | |
| EN[r]AGE (anger) revising R (right) to N (note) | |||
| 28d | SLUSHY | Overly sentimental drunk breaching limits of society (6) | |
| LUSH (drunk) entering (breaching) the outer letters of (limits of) SocietY | |||
| 29d | HIP-HOP | Music style that’s awful formerly packing joint (6) | |
| PHO (that’s awful formerly) inside (packing) HIP (joint) | |||
| 30d | SPEW | Cat boxes with raised base (4) | |
| PEWS (boxes) with raised E (base) | |||
| 31d | KENNEL | Gutter inlet uncovered, twisting round under range of sight (6) | |
| An anagram of (… twisting round) iNLEt without outer letters (uncovered) under KEN (range of sight) | |||
| 35d | SPAE | Great numbers turning up after beheading Scots divine (4) | |
| Without the first letter (… after beheading) hEAPS (great numbers) reversed (turning up) | |||
| 36d | MIRI | Rural communities admiring houses (4) | |
| AdMIRIng houses the answer | |||
There’s a setter’s blog for this crossword here:
https://bigdave44.com/2024/11/21/ev-1668-setters-blog/#more-207468
Many thanks to Ifor, this was as intricately and neatly constructed as we have come to expect from this setter. Just “simple” things like having 2 x T in alternate rows must have really added to the complexity involved.
This was another cleverly executed design worthy of following Ifor’s previous puzzle in this series. Neither of them was easy, and I enjoyed them both very much for their clues as well as for their endgames and thematic designs.
When the grid was complete, the letter T stood out immediately as one that could be replaced by another letter wherever it occurred, and the 8-letter name BOB DYLAN was then readily obtained by reference to the relevant Across clues. ‘The Answer’ was a bit more difficult, and it was only when I allowed WICH to replace TICH (a possibility I had overlooked in my first run through) that BLOWIN’ IN THE WIND stood out from all of the many possible permutations of the letters. I didn’t know The Times They Are a-Changin’, but a scan through the musician’s discography revealed it.
Many thanks to Ifor and to Kitty for the blog.
(Kitty, a small point. It is FUEL CELL (not FUELL …) at 21d.)
My thanks to all. Alan – apropos your point about Dylan’s discography – you might have seen my comment elsewhere that space considerations sadly forced the omission from the preamble of “both songs are referenced in ODQ”, designed to minimise the need for a lengthy trawl through a large body of work. Hopefully your search didn’t take too long.
Ifor
Yes, I did see your comment mentioning the ODQ (of which I have the eighth edition at home), but at the time of solving I didn’t think of looking there! Happily, my search did not take long at all. (With ‘T’ already in my mind, ‘time’ was quite likely to appear.)