Revelation of John by Elfman

Puzzle explanation

The characters (including punctuation and spaces) indexed in clues by the answers’ initial letters spelt out “use highlighted cells on other clues”. In the remaining 10 clues, taking the characters indexed by the highlighted TEN, NINE, ..., ONE gave ROCKET MAN (including the space), a song by Elton John.

Clue explanations

Conventions: * = anagram, < = reversal

No Answer Explanation
Across
3 GURGOYLES (UGLY OGRES) *
11 A LATERE A + LAT + ERE
12 INTIL (LIT + NI) <
13 NONI NON + I
14 JINN homophone of GIN; indirect reference to J(apanese) INN
15 CLOTE L in COTE
16 KEDGING EDG(e) in KING
18 SEA EGG SG around (EA + EG)
19 VETERAN VAN around PETER − P
20 BALUS BALD − D + U(nder) S(edation)
23 EXTEND END after (t)EXT
24 MISSIVE MISS + I’VE
27 FRIPON FON around RIP
29 ULCER (RECLUSE − SE) <
30 ITCHIER IT + IE in CHR
32 STELES (ta)STELES(s)
36 WOOD OWL WOOD + LOW *
38 TATOU (A + TOUT) with the last letter moved to the front
39 SNOG AGONS < − A
40 ESAU (th)ESAU(rus)
41 EPACT EP + ACT
42 STUPENT S + UP in TENT
43 LAUNCH PAD (A NADAL PUNCH − AN) *
Down
1 HANKS HANGS with K for G
2 FLOE homophone of FLOW
3 GANDALF G + AND + ALF
4 REJIG RE + J + GI <
5 GRINGOS GO’S around RING
6 YANKEE 2 meanings
7 LICH 2 meanings
8 STOOR SR around TOO
9 PITTANCE C in PATIENT *
10 OLEANDER (AN + RED <) after OLÉ
17 BETEL BÊTE + L
19 VISOR VIS + OR
20 BEFITTED BED around FITTE
21 AIR-TRAPS ART < in PARIS *
22 UMPHS MPH in US
25 INSOOTH IN + SO + HOT *
26 ECLOSED CLOSE in ED
28 NELSON (MANDELA’S SON) * = (NELSON + ADAM’S) *
31 CITAL RECITAL − RE
33 TOG UP (GO in PUT) <
34 SLUTS LUSTS with the middle letter moved to the front
35 TUTU (UT + UT) <
37 WANG WAN + G(ums)
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