Constructor: Drew Schmenner
Relative difficulty: Easy
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THEME: AUTOTUNE (60A: Modern music staple that's a punny description of 17-, 24-, 38- and 48-Across)— songs ("tunes") with cars ("autos") in their names:
Theme answers:
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OK, that's good. And so seemingly obvious, so right-out-there-for-the-taking that I can't believe this theme hasn't been done before. Maybe it has, but if so, I missed it. AUTOTUNE ... tunes ... about autos. I mean, the puzzle practically writes itself. If I have any issues with the theme, it's the execution, specifically the themer set, which must have been heavily determined by symmetry potential. There's a type of car, a make of car (that is actually a person), a ... car (?), and then another make of car (that is actually a car). I guess my only real quibble here is with "FAST CAR," a song I love, and love seeing in the grid, but ... it seems really different from all the other answers, car-wise. The rest of the answers give you *types* of car, and "FAST CAR" just gives you .. car. Granted, it's not just any car. It's a FAST CAR. But still, pretty generic compared to the brand names and the specific car type that make up the rest of the themers. There must be tons of other "AUTOTUNE"s out there. Seems like the theme has good Sunday-sized grid potential. "LITTLE DEUCE COUPE" ... "PINK CADILLAC" ... "BIG YELLOW TAXI" ... If someone wants to redo this theme on a bigger scale, with totally different answers, I wouldn't mind. The core idea is good, and remembering songs is fun.
Bullets:
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Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- "LOW RIDER" (17A: Top 10 funk hit from War with an iconic bass line (1975))
- "MUSTANG SALLY" (24A: Classic Wilson Pickett cover (1966))
- "FAST CAR" (38A: Tracy Chapman hit with the line "I had a feeling I could be someone" (1988))
- "MERCEDES BENZ" (48A: Janis Joplin's final recording, which had an anticonsumerism message (1970))
"Low Rider" is a song written by American funk band War and producer Jerry Goldstein, which appeared on their album Why Can't We Be Friends?, released in 1975. It reached number one on the Billboard R&B singles chart, peaked at number seven on the Hot 100 singles chart, and number six in Canada.
According to the AllMusic review of the song, "the lyric takes the cool, laidback image of the lowrider—the Chicano culture practice of hydraulically hot-rodding classic cars—and using innuendo, extends the image to a lifestyle". The song features a driving bass line by B. B. Dickerson, which is present almost throughout, and an alto saxophone riff by Charles Miller, who also provides lead vocals and a saxophone solo towards the end of the song that includes a siren-like noise. This song is the theme song for the TV series George Lopez, which ran from 2002 to 2007.
I got "MERCEDES BENZ" without looking at the clue because I had the BENZ part filled in from crosses, but I actually would've known the answer to that clue cold, with no help, thanks to WFMU (my fav station, hello New Jersey!). "What was Janis Joplin's final recording?" was a trivia question on "Wake 'N' Bake" (hosted by Clay Pigeon, weekdays 6-9am) just last week, or recently, anyway. After the listener got, and/or missed, the question, Clay played the song, so I've had it in my ears. It's pretty indelible (sung a cappella). I also learned this week that MCJOB was a term popularized by Douglas Coupland in his generation-naming novel "Generation X" (1991); I learned this from reading Chuck Klosterman's new book about the '90s entitled, enigmatically, "The Nineties," which is completely enthralling—way, way more than a catalog of kitsch. It's a lot about memory, especially collective memory—how it works, and how it changed, drastically, over the course of roughly one decade. But it's also a hilarious trip through music, politics, movies, etc. Just a joy to read. In retrospect, the decade comes off as way, way more momentous than I would've believed while I was living through it.
TMC is not a [Cable option for cinephiles]. I keep saying this, to no avail. TCM (Turner Classic Movies) is the [Cable option for cinephiles]. It's also the only TV channel I watch. TMC (The Movie Channel) ... I don't know who watches that, or why, but stop calling them "cinephiles." Also, stop hiding names inside words (36D: Name hidden in "paleontology"). It feels so condescending. "Can you find the man's name in 'paleontologist'? Good boy!" Child's placemat stuff. Boo. LEON Bridges would like a word. Here he is now (No idea if he has a song about a car, so this'll have to do):
Bullets:
- 5A: Undergrad conferrals, for short (BAS)— had -AS and wanted either TAS or RAS (because you "confer" with them? Maybe?). This kept BADASS hidden from me for a while ("a while" being, in actuality, probably like 5-10 seconds) (5D: Supercool individual).
- 9D: "___ más!" ("UNO") — huh ... I wanted "NO más!" (the Roberto Duran quotation), but it wouldn't fit so I wanted something like "A! NO más!" or "O! No más!" UNO was a surprise.
- 11D: Many messages in spam folders (EMAIL SCAMS) — dead stop after EMAIL. Just staring at the space, thinking "well, it can't be SPAM, so ..." I never go in my spam folder so how the hell do I know what's in there?
- 40A: What "XXX" might represent in comics (ALE)— more likely moonshine, right? Maybe not. I think of "XXX" as something harder than ALE. One "X" for each distilling? Something like that.
- 30A: Some damning evidence (TAPES) — I'm too old to believe this is true. People do and say horrible *&%^ on tapes all the time and somehow don't end up "damned" at all. Also, we're entering the age of Deep Fakes, which makes the future persuasive value of TAPES even more dubious. Have a nice day!
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