"Nowhere Man"

A weekly meta crossword created by members of the forum. Difficulty levels will vary. Hints are usually available starting Wednesday, and solutions are posted on Sunday.
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BarbaraK
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#41

Post by BarbaraK »

I'm curious about the ages of those who had a hard time with this one. Just as Emma's a couple weeks ago skewed millennial and sent boomers like me off to google, this one was solidly in my wheelhouse but I could imagine some younger folks would have to google to get it.
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FrankH
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#42

Post by FrankH »

Early on I found the Beatles songs and noticed 38A and 41A, and decided perhaps it was one of the other musicians that played on the Beatles Band. So I did a search but could not find any that had 12 letters in their name. Why? Because Stu was listed as Stuart, and I never thought to shorten it to Stu.

I am somewhat confused with the word "better" in 72A. While it is needed for 72A answer, I was wondering how put "better" words together would "give some clues to an answer". It seems we just need to put words together to form song titles. So I was going back to that multiple times to see if I missed something.

Any regarding nudge #1, how does the title help to narrow down the choices? I wasn't sure what the title means except perhaps it may be another way to indicate 38A and 41A.
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Wendy Walker
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#43

Post by Wendy Walker »

BarbaraK wrote: Sun Aug 30, 2020 11:28 am I'm curious about the ages of those who had a hard time with this one. Just as Emma's a couple weeks ago skewed millennial and sent boomers like me off to google, this one was solidly in my wheelhouse but I could imagine some younger folks would have to google to get it.
This Boomer thinks that's a very good point, Barbara. Songs from our youth stick in our otherwise-addled brains. Mark is temporarily driving a truck with Sirius XM in it, and on the way home from dinner last night we were listening to "Seventies on Seven": Alone Again Naturally. We Are Family. Maggie May. Beth. I could sing along to EVERY SINGLE SONG without even thinking! Meanwhile, I'm lucky if I remember to buy the very item I go to the supermarket to buy.
Good luck, fellow Muggles!
Dplass
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#44

Post by Dplass »

BarbaraK wrote: Sun Aug 30, 2020 11:28 am I'm curious about the ages of those who had a hard time with this one. Just as Emma's a couple weeks ago skewed millennial and sent boomers like me off to google, this one was solidly in my wheelhouse but I could imagine some younger folks would have to google to get it.
I'm 52 and couldn't remember the names of the other pre famous Beatles, though I knew there were a few. I also never heard of Blackbird but definitely saw all the other songs in the grid.
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Hector
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#45

Post by Hector »

Almost Famous does have a character Penny Lane, which was a nice red herring.

"Nowhere Man" is another Beatles song, so it's not merely an echo of Almost Famous.

Great meta.
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boharr
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#46

Post by boharr »

Wendy Walker wrote: Sun Aug 30, 2020 12:50 pm
BarbaraK wrote: Sun Aug 30, 2020 11:28 am I'm curious about the ages of those who had a hard time with this one. Just as Emma's a couple weeks ago skewed millennial and sent boomers like me off to google, this one was solidly in my wheelhouse but I could imagine some younger folks would have to google to get it.
This Boomer thinks that's a very good point, Barbara. Songs from our youth stick in our otherwise-addled brains. Mark is temporarily driving a truck with Sirius XM in it, and on the way home from dinner last night we were listening to "Seventies on Seven": Alone Again Naturally. We Are Family. Maggie May. Beth. I could sing along to EVERY SINGLE SONG without even thinking! Meanwhile, I'm lucky if I remember to buy the very item I go to the supermarket to buy.
That's why supermarket items have jingles.
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Wendy Walker
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#47

Post by Wendy Walker »

Hector wrote: Sun Aug 30, 2020 12:57 pm Almost Famous does have a character Penny Lane, which was a nice red herring.

"Nowhere Man" is another Beatles song, so it's not merely an echo of Almost Famous.

Great meta.
And Kate Hudson was so charming in that role that I ended up watching the whole movie!
Good luck, fellow Muggles!
damefox
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#48

Post by damefox »

BarbaraK wrote: Sun Aug 30, 2020 11:28 am I'm curious about the ages of those who had a hard time with this one. Just as Emma's a couple weeks ago skewed millennial and sent boomers like me off to google, this one was solidly in my wheelhouse but I could imagine some younger folks would have to google to get it.
For the record, this millennial got this one. I wouldn't say I was a Beatles' "stan" (look it up), but I think if you've never heard of "Yellow Submarine" or "Penny Lane," the problem is probably not that you're a millennial but that you've been living under a rock. Ironically, the only song I didn't recognize immediately as a Beatles' hit was "Nowhere Man." Additionally, if you've solved enough crosswords, you've inevitably run into Mr. Sutcliffe. STU is too convenient a letter combination and people are always looking for new ways to clue it, so I wasn't surprised to see him as the answer.

I thought this one was pretty impressive because there's so much meta content squeezed into it. Six song titles = 12 entries, plus ALMOST FAMOUS, means 14 themes entries/more than 70 total theme letters! (I think it's more than 70, if you count ALMOST FAMOUS. I counted in my head while I was listening to a podcast and that's never a good idea for me.) Would not have thought it was possible to pull that off with Beatles' songs. Very nicely done!
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Richard B.
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#49

Post by Richard B. »

Wendy Walker wrote: Sun Aug 30, 2020 11:26 am Oh geez! I didn't get the meta but while trying to do so I certainly learned a lot about the movie "Almost Famous." None of which, sadly, had anything to do with the Beatles. Terrific puzzle!
I also went down the “Almost Famous” rabbit hole for a while.
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Meg
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#50

Post by Meg »

Hector wrote: Sun Aug 30, 2020 12:57 pm Almost Famous does have a character Penny Lane, which was a nice red herring.

"Nowhere Man" is another Beatles song, so it's not merely an echo of Almost Famous.

Great meta.
I was so excited to find Penny Lane. And then silence in the realm.
Check out and support http://CrosswordsForCancer.com.
Schmeel
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#51

Post by Schmeel »

I saw Penny Lane, Yellow Submarine and Hey Jude. Those put me in the right direction.
I never heard of (but possibly heard, not knowing the name) the other songs. Never heard of Stu Sutcliffe either.
Google came to my aid - I couldn't have solved the meta without it.
I mark it down as a learning experience, there's a lot I just don't know.
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MikeM000
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#52

Post by MikeM000 »

This was a great puzzle. My own personal biases threw me off a fair amount...

-I don't know who was the lead writer on Yellow submarine as Ringo signs it, but the other 5 are all Paul-sung compositions. Hopefully anyone who knows the Beatles at all saw almost all of those right off the bat. (Get Back was harder to see likely due to word length.)
-I googled "Almost famous" and discovered Paul McCartney released a live CD/DVD by that name about a decade ago.
-After he mentioned Almost Famous and "bass" in the nudges my mind turned to Mark Kozelek, a maybekindasortawellknown musician who played the bassist in that movie. He's also facing some ugly metoo-ish accusations these days, which puts his name back toward the front of my mind.

But yeah...once the creator put me on the path I got it very quickly and I'm all DUH! Of course that's who it is....
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TMart
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#53

Post by TMart »

FrankH wrote: Sun Aug 30, 2020 12:47 pm
I am somewhat confused with the word "better" in 72A. While it is needed for 72A answer...
That’s all “better” was - it had to properly clue the grid entry first, and then double as a hint to put grid words together
FrankH wrote: Sun Aug 30, 2020 12:47 pm Any regarding nudge #1, how does the title help to narrow down the choices? I wasn't sure what the title means except perhaps it may be another way to indicate 38A and 41A.
“Nowhere Man” is a fairly well-known Beatles song. This was meant to indicate that the musician was somehow connected to the Beatles.
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C=64
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#54

Post by C=64 »

The real-life Penny Lane (she spells it Pennie, btw) lives on the outskirts of Portland and we rented a house from her over the past couple of years until May. Regarding the movie, she said "I didn't take quite that many drugs; I spit out a lot of pills in the toilet." Also, Paul McCartney texted her this past Valentine's Day just to say hi. I am not making this up.
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SusieG
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#55

Post by SusieG »

I really liked this puzzle, but I missed the "click" -- I just guessed it must be Stu S. based on the songs. I was not a sophisticated enough solver to see your secret code. Very nice!

Almost Famous threw me for a loop - thought it may also be Larry Fellows (fake musician who played the bass) or Todd Rundgren.
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DrTom
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#56

Post by DrTom »

Well I did not solve, funny because at one point I thought - hmmm, there was the one guy who left before they got famous, I wonder? But then I got off in the Beatles tangent and never got the real mechanism. I got part 1 of a two part answer.

IMPRESSIVE construction because it is difficult to do that.

TB
NUDGES!I am always willing to give nudges where needed; metas should be about fun, not frustration. Send me what you have done so far because often you are closer than you think!
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Bird Lives
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#57

Post by Bird Lives »

DrTom wrote: Tue Sep 01, 2020 3:37 pm Well I did not solve, funny because at one point I thought - hmmm, there was the one guy who left before they got famous, I wonder? But then I got off in the Beatles tangent and never got the real mechanism. I got part 1 of a two part answer.

IMPRESSIVE construction because it is difficult to do that.

TB
Pete Best, a drummer, wasn't it?

I kept thinking that the Beatles songs were the red herring and that the answer lay in Almost Famous, a movie I saw (IIRC) when it came out and rewatched a few minutes of on TV not long ago. I went to the Internet and found what Susie G found: "Jerry Cantrell was Crowe's first choice for the role of Stillwater bass player LARRY FELLOWS. Twelve letters.
Jay
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Bird Lives
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#58

Post by Bird Lives »

BarbaraK wrote: Sun Aug 30, 2020 11:28 am I'm curious about the ages of those who had a hard time with this one. Just as Emma's a couple weeks ago skewed millennial and sent boomers like me off to google, this one was solidly in my wheelhouse but I could imagine some younger folks would have to google to get it.
I am, technically, not a boomer, and I drifted away from rock music in the 70s except for things that were so huge as to be unavoidable (e.g., Saturday Night Fever), and by the 80s I was a rock 'n' roll illiterate. I was at a Yankees game a few years ago, and during one inning break, they played some song, probably a golden oldie from the 80s or 90s, and people got up and danced in place. I looked at the people on the JumboTron, I looked at the people around me, and I'm pretty sure I was the only person in the Stadium who was not singing along. (Now of course if it had been Fenway and Sweet Caroline. . . ..)
Jay
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whimsy
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#59

Post by whimsy »

I was Beatles all the way (I'm a boomer with a husband who's always been a big fan) with most of the 7 songs, but I was stuck between Stu S. and George Martin. I was veering toward GM since he played a bigger part in all those tunes and was "the fifth Beatle." I was practically positive when I saw that he'd worked with Elton John on Candle in the Wind, and there was Diana at 54D! But then came that last nudge with "bass," so I begrudgingly shifted over to SS, figuring that as talented as GM was, that instrument wasn't in his repertoire.
Didn't matter since I never found the initialism of the clues route and couldn't justify either of them! :?
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Al Sisti
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#60

Post by Al Sisti »

Bird Lives wrote: Tue Sep 01, 2020 5:22 pm
DrTom wrote: Tue Sep 01, 2020 3:37 pm Well I did not solve, funny because at one point I thought - hmmm, there was the one guy who left before they got famous, I wonder? But then I got off in the Beatles tangent and never got the real mechanism. I got part 1 of a two part answer.

IMPRESSIVE construction because it is difficult to do that.

TB
Pete Best, a drummer, wasn't it?

My brother and cousin opened for Pete Best's band a few years ago, and said he sounded kinda bitter. Ya think!?
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