"Look Both Ways" by ajk

[The XWord Rabbit]

Got it. If ever you want to do a puzzle with an obscure Carmen Miranda tune, just let Mr. Guffman know.

[Darth]

Sssolved. Thanks, ajk.

[Qmark]

Late getting to it, but sssolved on the same day at least. Thanks Alan!

[Jeremy Smith]

Sssolved. Really enjoyed it. Great clues. Thanks, Alan!

[CPJohnson]

Late getting started today, but….sssolved! Thanks, Alan. I knew the song.

[sharkicicles]

Loved the puzzle. Can someone here explain to me the meaning of the clue for 47a?

[Wendy Walker]

Thanks for the kind shout-out, @ajk !

[ajk]

Loved the puzzle. Can someone here explain to me the meaning of the clue for 47a?

I was going for two different uses of the grid entry, one having to do with meteors and the other with babies.

[ajk]

Monday morning leaderboard, and we have a good group. As usual, this is a meld of posts in this thread and solves on Crosshare, so some duplication is is possible unless usernames are sufficiently similar.

[TS] Wendy Walker
[TS] Abide
[TS] Cap'n Rick
1. benchen71
2. lbray53
3. Cindy Weatherman
4. DCBilly
5. Alex Sisti
6. boharr
7. I K Snamhcok
8. ChrisKochmanski
9. Meg
10. JM
11. michaelm
12. Berto
13. Bob cruise director
14. Bird Lives
15. Gutman
16. whimsy
17. Pair O Ducks
18. merlinnimue
19. MatthewL
20. Hector
21. MarkWoychick
22. KayW
23. jhseeman
24. Carolyn
25. hcbirker
26. DIS
27. BarbaraK
28. andeux
29. Cindy Heisler
30. SamKat9
31. Cinny
32. Jaclyn
33. The XWord Rabbit
34. GR
35. Darth
36. Jeremy Smith
37. Qmark
38. Laura M
39. CPJohnson
40. Sharkicicles
41. Tyrpmom
42. Schmeel

[sharkicicles]

Loved the puzzle. Can someone here explain to me the meaning of the clue for 47a?

I was going for two different uses of the grid entry, one having to do with meteors and the other with babies.

aaaah... thanks!

[rjy]

Just got around to this, so since it’s the next day: mmmolved nnnudgelessly. Right in my wheelhouse… I’ve done more lifetime damage to my vocal cords w this song over any other… cheers!

[woozy]

OopSSS

Forgot about this one until about 15 minutes ago. Solved without the nudges and not knowing whether I know the song by name. Nice puzzle.

[ajk]

pre-reveal solver update:
43. DrTom
44. Tom Wilson
45. rjy
46. kurtalert
47. woozy
48. markhr
49. HeadinHome
50. Katiedid
51. Dow Jones
52. Rufus T Firefly
53. Mikey G
54. Darrell
55. BrennerTJ
56. AxelPlays

[ajk]

The meta answer is THUNDER ROAD.

As stated in the intro, the discussion of things classic in TV land prompted my mind to wander to classic rock songs, and this particular one seemed to lend itself well to a pretty tried and true mechanism that I thought might be fun for a Sunday solve.

We have four entries on the left of the grid whose clues bear a single asterisk, and then four on the right with two asterisks. Why the difference? Well, the central spanning entry at 40A tells us to look to the area right and left of the grid for answers, and indeed the single asterisk words can all follow THUNDER, while the double asterisk ones can all precede ROAD (as seen below). So the meta answer is THUNDER ROAD, a classic from Bruce Springsteen's 1975 magnum opus Born to Run

Hopefully even those unfamiliar with the song could get to the two words, and from there google should have quickly confirmed the answer:



Oh, and in case you didn't read the nudges, you might have wondered if there was a typo in the clue for 36D:
"Confronted, as an overbearing Boss, perhaps" seems like it has one too many capital letters. But, of course, Springsteen's nickname is The Boss, so that was a little Easter egg (that might even have been of use if you were having trouble discovering the required words).

As always, thanks for solving, and hope you enjoyed.
cheers,
Alan