The answer to the meta is a song from the early '80s
I really didn't know what to call this one; and I don't really know how to introduce it, either. So I guess these vague sentiments will just have to do! The answer to the meta is a song from the early '80s. Answer & explanation: https://www.xword-muggles.com/viewtopic.php?p=195217#p195217
Check out "The MOAT Mini Pack of Marching Bands" here: https://www.ephesusscroll.com/about/interest4.html. US$5 gets you 7 Marching Bands which, hard enough on their own, now contain metas too. And once again there's a mega-meta!
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Comments
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This meta was partly inspired by the Dire Straits song "Tunnel of Love", which explains why BOAT was clued with the words "low ride". Check out the music video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAirINwjaxE.
I went from In the Dark (Billy Squier 1981) to Upside Down (Diana Ross 1980) and Endless Love (Ross/Richie 1980)... until I finally saw the light at the end of the "tunnel"! ....I guess I missed the boat! :D Thanks, Ben. Happy Valentine's "week"!
Meg 1:53 · 2025-02-11T15:30:45.548Z
I thought it was a house…… of love….or something like that. Finally figured out how to include attraction. Nice one, Ben.
Alvibu67 6s · 2025-02-11T23:03:41.206Z
I thought it was Love Shack by the B-52’s but that was late ‘80s. Great song, too!
MatthewL 🤓5:56 · 2025-02-11T17:57:01.536Z
Had to try Opposites Attract first (who doesn't love MC Skat Kat), but then realized where you were going with this once I saw the LOVE and BOAT. Thanks for the puzzle, Ben!
Yep. Never heard of the song. But had to visualize what it is and .....
DCBilly 3s · 2025-02-12T00:28:32.719Z
I saw the visual pretty soon after filling the grid. Before solving I was worried that the shape was going to be a video game controller, which would be death for me. But instead it was a tunnel! Of love! With a boat floating through! And I knew the song from my years of spending too much of my spare change on these things called Compact Discs.
I have a large collection of CDs and I still buy them. (And when I can't buy them I burn my own!)
KayW 🤓2:02 · 2025-02-11T22:04:49.139Z
LOL. I saw the title "Attract", and all the LOVE clinging it to it. And got it stuck in my head that the big black shape was a LOVE MAGNET (a song I never heard of, circa 1979.) Then I saw the BOAT and tried to enter THEME FROM THE LOVE BOAT in as many variations as possible. Then I focused on the 2 long across entries and tried LOVE ON THE RUN and TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN. A whack on the head from Ben helped me see the light at the end of the TUNNEL. Nice one, Ben - thanks for the remedial help!
Well I lucked into this because I saw LOVE BOAT and the LOVE BOAT theme came out in the early 80's (late 70's). I saw the "magnetlike" shape and figured it was "attracting" the LO and VE above it - BRILLIANT, but wrong. "Hmmm, what is that Southern Hemisphere trickster up to..." then I saw the other LOVEs making a tunnel...TADA!!! I had some great other ideas (CARDIOVASCULARASBESTOS - Hearts on Fire, Frankie AVE/ALON "Fever", MATINEEIDOLARON "Elvis Presley Burning Love". Luckily I saw the tunnel!!
Great construction
ELSavage 🤓9:30 · 2025-02-11T20:12:29.175Z
I was thinking House of Love (but that's a band formed in 1986), Love Shack (1989), and then the image and BOAT finally suggested Tunnel of Love, but I was dissuaded at first because I was thinking of the Bruce Springsteen song from 1987. Tried it anyway, just in case there was an earlier version I wasn't familiar with - and there was.
Well I’ll be darned, Springsteen did Tunnel of Love too.
hoover 5s · 2025-02-13T07:16:25.030Z
Yeah, that's the one that fills the top of the results when you search for "Tunnel of Love."
Shaun 13:37 · 2025-02-13T05:55:58.668Z
Needed nudge #2 to solve the meta. Fun one thanks.
Carolyn 7s · 2025-02-13T13:17:54.619Z
Thanks for the nudges!
Mg305 3s · 2025-02-13T13:45:33.631Z
Tunnel of Love is a Bruce Springsteen hit from 1987. Not the early 80s. Threw me off. I get the Dire Straits song of same name was released in 1980 but that’s a sort of obscure song in comparison and not even close to the Boss’s song in terms of cultural relevance…
You forget that I am an Australian and the Dire Straits song was huge Downunder. I personally have never heard the Bruce Springsteen one!
HeadinHome 🤓1:20 · 2025-02-13T14:03:00.615Z
Okay, well after submitting anything I could find on Billboard top 100 for 1980-1985 containing anything remotely related to LOVE or cars (my guess at the blob), I submitted your shove-nudge, et voilà. Google says it was released 1987 (not “early” 80s - so I think I would have gotten this by my chart-scan method but for that one word in the prompt. Still, this was a creative puzzle and I salute you getting the letters to do that!!