Let It Be

[vandono]

loved the grid. decided which song i thought it was pretty quickly - maybe because it's one of my favorite Beatles songs... no worse than tied for first anyway. but i haven't worked out the complete mechanism, even with the hints. i'm on the edge of the couch ready to spring. we'll see.

[Ergcat]

Ok, I read the nudges… did what I thought they said to do ( with the help of Mr. G, of course) but still not sure! I must be missing something

[DrTom]

Did not read the nudges, thankfully, because I would have been mad. I took a break from trying to hammer a mess I am working on into a Meta and looked over Chris' excellent puzzle again. This time I was no longer distracted by the shiny object I saw early on and discovered the real mechanism. I have submitted and though not confirmed I am pretty confident of my answer. I am also listening to the Beatles playlist and just heard on of my favorites (and a Florida theme song) "Here Comes the Sun" and next comes one that I can say thankfully I am not dressed for, "All together Now"

[BarbaraK]

Did not read the nudges, thankfully, because I would have been mad. I took a break from trying to hammer a mess I am working on into a Meta and looked over Chris' excellent puzzle again. This time I was no longer distracted by the shiny object I saw early on and discovered the real mechanism. I have submitted and though not confirmed I am pretty confident of my answer. I am also listening to the Beatles playlist and just heard on of my favorites (and a Florida theme song) "Here Comes the Sun" and next comes one that I can say thankfully I am not dressed for, "All together Now"

I'll bet I know what that shiny object was. Yeah, that was hard to let go.

[cbarbee002]

Ok, things heated up a bit this afternoon, with several move solvers crossing the finish line. We are now up to 37 but I know more of you are out there, undoubtedly busy tweaking your Pandora / Spotify / other playlists!

Schmeel
DrTom
BrennerTJ
johnaldape
whimsy
Bob cruise director
runart
Cap'n Rick
minimuggle
joequavis
MikeyG
Dave C
TeamDoubleTow

And one more nudge. There IS a mechanism that will lead you to the intended answer. Also, the correct song title would be appropriate as the official Muggles song (as suggested by a solver)!

[whimsy]

Since Chris agrees that I'm humming the right tune, I'll indicate my off-the-couch-ed-ness.

Prank time! -- Let's see how many of us we can stuff back on to it!

Enjoyed the puzzle a lot, and all the tongue-in-cheek responses!

[minimuggle]

I'm confirmed off the couch, but only with nudges and a lot of HELP. Really a fun puzzle.

[TeamDoubleTow]

Not confirmed but pretty confident that we are off the couch. We liked at the first 2 nudges and that confirmed we were going in the right direction... Unfortunately we had a little issue with the application last night.

[Cinny]

Enjoyed this puzzle. Brought back many good memories listening to the Beatles way back when.
Solved and confirmed! Thanks, Chris!

[JeanneC]

Not seeing it. Not Chris’s fault but mine.
What I remember most about the Beatles is how their music lifted the spirits after we had lost a President by assassination. It was a very muted Christmas in 1963. Then the Beatles appeared on the Sullivan show in early 1964. As a 10 year old then I remember it was finally OK to play popular music in the house, run up and down the stairs and pick fights with my brothers.

[Bird Lives]

I am no longer sitting on the sofa with a sister or two.

I just got back to this one this morning, and without looking at the nudges (which I still haven't done), realized the answer to the question I had been asking on my first time through two days ago. I said to myself. . . well if you've solved it you know what I said. And I got by with a little help from my Internet connection.

[cbarbee002]

Board update. Up to 41 solvers with the following Muggles escaping the sofa (let me know if I missed you!):

Snood
Ergcat
Cinny
Bird Lives

Let me know if you still need/want a nudge. I'll post the solution late Saturday afternoon.

[eagle1279]

I think I’m off the couch without having looked at nudges — yet! Lots of googling required as I’m not as familiar with the topic as some of you must be.

Great puzzle!

[Anita]

Nudged off the couch. Very nice!

[cbarbee002]

A few more across the finish line:

Bbaack
eagle1279
Anita
MamaE
Gmoney
ReB
Sharkicicles
Tom Mueller
Carolyn
CPJohnson
NaptownKid
HeadinHome

[sharkicicles]

Woot. This was awesome.

[MikeyG]

Did not read the nudges, thankfully, because I would have been mad. I took a break from trying to hammer a mess I am working on into a Meta and looked over Chris' excellent puzzle again. This time I was no longer distracted by the shiny object I saw early on and discovered the real mechanism. I have submitted and though not confirmed I am pretty confident of my answer. I am also listening to the Beatles playlist and just heard on of my favorites (and a Florida theme song) "Here Comes the Sun" and next comes one that I can say thankfully I am not dressed for, "All together Now"

I'll bet I know what that shiny object was. Yeah, that was hard to let go.

I'm curious when all is said and done if I too saw the nice, shiny object and just went for it. We shall see!

Not five words, and maybe it's overrated to some, but it isn't to me: I find "Hey Jude" to be one of the best musical and even lyrical constructions of all time. Maybe I'm looking at it through rose-colored glasses, but it seemed like a great emblem of hope when everything else was falling apart. It never fails to cheer me up, especially after a rough day.

Mikey G

[HeadinHome]

Finally spent some time on this today! Grid was done Monday, but I didn’t see the meta and forgot to come back for nudges (which should not have been needed, but were). Such a clever puzzle! I’ll message Chris, but it was a satisfying click that made me smile!! (Yes, needed google… though I was around in the heyday, I was just a tot in the ‘60s, and my parents didn’t buy a lot of vinyl, unfortunately.

[cbarbee002]

OK - - ended up with 50+ solvers! Here is the solution (I'm assuming you were able to complete the grid, so not posting a picture of that).

The title of the meta was "Let it Be", which (along with several clues - - see more below) was meant to point you to the B-sides of the seven songs in the clues. The trick, as it turns out, was to get the "correct" B-sides based on the details in the clues. Here are the seven songs, the seven B-sides, and the first letters of those B-sides:

Get Back - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -> Don't Let Me Down - - - - - - - - -> D

Please Please Me ('63 version) - - - - - - - - - - -> Ask Me Why - - - - -> A

Can't Buy Me Love - - - - - - - - - -> You Can't Do That - - - - - - - - - - > Y

I Want to Hold Your Hand ('63 UK release) - - - > This Boy - - - - - - - -> T

Hey Jude - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > Revolution - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -> R

Hello Goodbye - - - - - - - - - - - - > I Am The Walrus - - - - - - - - - - - > I

Love Me Do - - - - - - - - - - - - - -> P.S. I Love You - - - - - - - - - - - - -> P

The first letters of the B-sides spell DAYTRIP, which was meant to clue you towards the song DAYTRIPPER, but, like DAYTRIP, it isn't finished. The B-side to DAYTRIPPER is the meta answer, WE CAN WORK IT OUT.

Several clues were meant to suggest the mechanism, including 53A and 6D, both of which discuss "both sides". Additionally, the grid answer to 70A is ASIDES, which refers to the songs in the clues, OR to the technically correct answer to the meta, which is that WE CAN WORK IT OUT is actually a rare "double A-side".

I'm hoping that there is a spike in searches for Beatles tunes on Spotify - - I know that creating the puzzle resulted in me listening a lot more to my favorite Beatles tunes. My thanks to Peter and Al for their expert comments and suggested edits, all of which greatly improved the grid.

Thanks to everyone who solved, and apologies to everyone born after the mid-1980's, as you may have had no idea what a "B-side" is/was.

[Abide]

The week before this one the Zoom call discussed Matt’s “Which Side Are You On?” The group talked about the red herring of B-sides to the Abdul songs, and how that would be a good future mechanism. I could see Chris biting his tongue!