Geological Rings

[Jeremy Smith]

OTC. Nice one. Thanks, Jay!

[minimuggle]

Off the couch... Thanks jay for a great puzzle

[Eric Porter]

OTC without even any hints. I didn't think this was harder than usual because I often need some help.
Thanks, Jay!

[Ergcat]

Off the couch! Fun way to start the week!

[HeadinHome]

OTC and ready for another week of excellent metas like this one!

[Bob cruise director]

I believe that @MaineMarge and I are off the couch. Awaiting confirmation.

I suspect that we had less trouble than the younger muggles. 33A was a piece of cake and several others.

[mkmf]

Off the couch and confirmed. Great start to the week. Thanks, Jay!

[Bird Lives]

Day two begins with 48 geologists on the board.
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A few people commented that they got the answer just from the prompt, the title, and perhaps a stray entry or two in the grid and them backsolved to find the metanism. We accept all methods, For those still on the couch, nudges tomorrow.

[MaineMarge]

@Bob cruise director and I are indeed OTC, after a bit of miscommunication with the JayBird
I had to waken Bob from his couch nap, but then he graciously took my arm as we both struggled up.
We both really liked this one, Jay.
The moon unit is a hoot!

[dsbened]

I'm still laughing at 55A: "Moon Unit", but there aren't enough squares to enter "Frank Zappa's daughter", lol!

[Bird Lives]

On Day 2, another nine solvers left the couch.

49. JeanneC
50. MaineMarge
51. Bob cruise director
52. Katiedid
53. PuzNewbie
54. kamashdad
55. david
56. Pair O Ducks
57. BarbaraK

For those still wondering, here are the nudges in increasing order of nudginess.

The prompt gives you sufficient information so that Google or memory will lead you to the title of the song.

And if that’s not enough, 53 Down. But that’s the song title; it’s technically not the answer. Replacing those four isolated black squares with a song title isn’t really going to give you a song title.

So what could go in each square that would produce that song title? The title of the puzzle is “Geological Rings.” Both those words are relevant.

If you know the song title (surely by now you do), you know what Geological refers to. But where are those geological things? The other word, Rings, suggests a route to trace those geological formations.

That route goes in the reverse direction from the usual.

So now you have a geological formation arranged as a ring. That ring surrounds a black square. What might replace that square so as to yield a literal version of the song title?

[Bird Lives]

The nudges or whatever have raised another fifteen solvers from the couch.

58. bhamren
59. merlinnimue
60. edestlin
61. Sharkicicles
62. BethA
63. jbird
64. BrennerTJ
65. Bbaack
66. Rick
67. Al Sisti
68. Streroto
69. Tim
70. Richard
71. Matt A
72. Naptown Kid

I can’t think of additional nudges right now, but if you’re still stuck, PM me, and I’ll try to come up with something.

[ReB]

Off the couch with nudging, as I couldn't get to the puzzle until today.

[Bird Lives]

As the clock on the wall shows, time has run out. With five more solvers, we complete the week with a total of seventy-seven.

73. SJ
74. michaelm
75. Sanne
76. Dow Jones
77. Darrell

Speaking of the clock on the wall, the prompt asked:
What might replace the isolated black squares to get an iconic #1 song from the 1950s?
Here is my solution:
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Each of those four black squares is in the middle of a ring of eight letters that spells the name of a rock:

CINNABAR
DOLOMITE
OBSIDIAN
PLYMOUTH

Replace the black square with a clock, and you get Rock Around the Clock.
Since Crosshare doesn’t accommodate images, any of the following texts were marked “Correct”:
The Clock
A Clock
Clocks
And yes, Rock Around the Clock even though it is not really a great response to the prompt.

DrTom noted that the clue for the central Across entry, LABEL, was “Atlantic or Motown,” and asked why not Decca. The answer is that I was too slow-witted to think of it. I should have checked the old 45s.
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Thanks to all.

[KayW]

Oh. Read the prompt. That thing screaming at me in huge bolded letters up in the first post? Yes, I guess that would have helped ... AND the meta makes more sense now. But it was still fun. Thanks for accepting my answer as entered!

[woozy]

Somehow for the first few days I kept interpreting the prompt the wrong way and I kept wondering how one was to get "clock" from the meta.

[cbarbee002]

Thx Jay! Just completed the puzzle moments ago. Fantastic construction!

[Annabelle]

Got this one with your nudges. Loving this trove of puzzles that I just discovered on the site!

[Darth]

Cool puz, Jay. And amazing construction.