Let My People Go

Nice one!... and, yes, it did take me a second to figure out what to do. ;D

Very nice, thanks for the puzzle!

There were lots of parts of the grid (top L, top R, bottom L, middle L) where you can almost spell Israel/i/ite and got me thinking along the lines of the Pandora’s box puzzle, but then went a more direct route and voilà! And even tho the album was released 4 months before I was born, it sure is well known! Thanks DrTom!

Thanks, Dr Tom. I enjoyed this just as much as when I test solved.

This one was plaguing me for a while, but I finally reached the promised land, and it's a honey of an answer, even if you did kind of milk the theme. Thanks and happy birthday, Tom!

Thanks, DrTom, and happy birthday!

Happy birthday Dr Tom! Thank you for the puzzle :)

Happy birthday DrTom! I did see your hint at 73A but didn't stop to think about it because my first thought was to "part the Red Sea" and take the ends, and, well, it worked!

Thanks, Dr. Tom - good one!

Very nice one, Tom! Took me a while to figure out what to do, but the grid entries at 1A and 73A finally caught my eye (put them together and its RESEND, which ultimately made me think first and last). Wonderful cluing as usual, although the clue and answer and 6D literally made me snort my coffee out my nose, so, you know, thanks for that. Happy Birthday!

An earworm? For all of us? You shouldn't have... Anyway happy birthday

Whoa...really had to chew this for a long time. Good thing I have strong teeth.

Was there anything to the res-end entries?

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday you old Giza.

I pre-tested this puzzle, but I wanted to see all the comments!

I love this puzzle. It all fits together at the end. The clue for 73A turned on the lightbulb for me. But not until I had tried a few other things. The Esau entry was a nice little bonus. I looked up the songlist for Genesis. Also Exodus even thiugh that group is less famous.

When I matched the RES and END as many others did, I checked with the birthday boy to make sure it wasn't part of the meta. He let me know it wasn't in play that way but that the words in the 73A clue and entry were important. I had tried parting the sea, but I was incorrectly plucking from the center. (I'm just gonna let that verb sit there and see what DrTom does with it -- "Let my chickens go"? "Chicken of the (Red) Sea"? "A plague most fowl"?)

Thanks for a fine puzzle!

Add me to the community of RESENDers here… esp w RELED adjacent to it. I had thought about parting of the sea, but was looking visually at the left and right entries rather than the left and right of each. So - tricky for me to get a toehold, I just didn’t see it, but totally fair, and the aptness of the answer still gave a great pay-off. Cheers!

Thanks, DrTom! Had me faked out with all the people in there, IRA, TED, ESAU, ETHAN et cet. Also, secondary earworm SUITE Home Alabama.

Really nice! I made it too hard and was trying to find a "Freedom" song. Thanks for the nudges.

I needed nudge #1, but then got it instantly. I had thought the reference to SUITE Judy Blue Eyes (central, and the only 5-letter across entry that was not already part of the theme) might be a hint of some sort, and tried "Wooden Ships" which is on the same album and describes an exodus of sorts. No onions in that song, though, just purple berries.

Needed the nudges. Thanks, and happy belated birthday!

Nice one, Tom! It took me MUCH longer than it should have, especially since is the second time I've seen the puzzle (tho under a different title). So I got to enjoy the same solve twice. Thanks!!

Nice one, DrTom! And a belated happy birthday!

Nice. I haven't looked at the nudges, but I was diverted down a rabbit hole by the "steps" in the clue to 1A, the step-like placement of the themers, LED Zeppelin, and the overall Biblical theme.. So it had to be "Stairway to Heaven," right?

Finally, Woozy’s nudge on nudge 3 helped me to get back on the right path out of the desert! I was wandering in the vast land between 1a RES and 73a END . Thinking I was to separate the RED sea! Taking it too literal, I guess! So there I was looking for some path that would start ( Genesis) in upper left with RE and end in lower left with the D in end. ( I had abandoned my themers a long time ago! ). So glad to have found the way out of the desert! Very nice meta, DrTom… I was just overthinking it!

Has no one asked what Dr. Tom would prescribe for a burning bush? Probably take two tablets & call him in the morning...

I didn't catch the significance of 73A until the nudge.

lol I swear I didn't look at the reveal. Forgot about this one when I didn't get it with the nudges, but came back just now and the nudge 3 nudge somehow got me to do the one thing I hadn't tried before. Fun stuff, thanks.