100% | THEBOSS | 7 | What James Brown “paid the cost to be,” in a 1973 song |
54% | SEDATED | 7 | What the Ramones wanted to be in a 1978 hit song |
43% | SHIP | 4 | What a fool might be using to cross the sea, according to a Grateful Dead song? |
43% | LAW | 3 | What the bill wants to be, in "I'm Just a Bill" |
42% | SEALED | 6 | What the Go-Go's lips are in a 1981 song |
42% | BOX | 3 | Container (and, in a way, what you will find outlined by this year's clues related to the mega-meta) |
42% | TOSS | 4 | What they do to a coin in Netflix's "The Witcher" according to Jaskier the Bard's song |
42% | FIREANDRAIN | 11 | James Taylor classic ... or, respectively, what can precede the two words in each answer to a starred clue |
42% | DEUCESWILD | 10 | Card game declaration, and a hint to what can be found in the four other longest answers |
41% | ROW | 3 | What to do "gently down the stream," in a song |
41% | LAP | 3 | What a runner will do to another when they're more than 400 m ahead in the 5,000 m |
41% | GRANDSLAMHOMERUN | 16 | What will cause a walk-off win in the situation described by the answers to the starred clues |
41% | TAILINGOFF | 10 | Waning ... or a hint to what is found by circling all the T's in the completed puzzle |
41% | YOUREMISSINGOUT | 15 | "That's a lost opportunity," and what can be said to the writer of four clues in this puzzle |
40% | STOOP | 5 | Bend to go through a doorway, say ... or what may be in front of the door |
40% | GIRLONFIRE | 10 | Song from Alicia Keys' fifth studio album which was a commercial hit with over 4 million paid downloads in the U.S.: 3 wds. |
39% | SADIST | 6 | One inclined to be a pain in the ass? |
39% | AMORE | 5 | What that is, in a 1953 song |
39% | SNOWMAN | 7 | What Frosty is, in a Christmas song |
39% | TAX | 3 | What a citizen pays to the government |
39% | MUSEE | 5 | What the Louvre is, to a Parisian |
39% | PLAYAREA | 8 | What the keys are to a pianist? |
39% | WEBB | 4 | Finally, let's go back to the 2020s! What will you see here? James ___ Space Telescope, new-age space telescope launched in 2021 |
39% | HIP | 3 | "___ to be square," a hit song by Huey Lewis and the News |
39% | BOOGALOO | 8 | Dance that James Brown helped to popularize in the sixties |
39% | TAX | 3 | What a dutiful citizen pays to the government |
39% | SEED | 4 | What the stone is in a stone fruit |
39% | BLED | 4 | What I always did to the car brakes after changing the fluid in those days when I was a DIY car guy (I no longer am!) |
39% | BAD | 3 | "___ was the blood of the song in the cab / On your first trip to L.A." |
39% | WHITE | 5 | What the color of Bing Crosby's Christmas is, in a 1942 song? |