Regarding this very incident, my stand has always been that the clues, as given, are illegal because of the prepositional phrases. For "warm woolen mittens" and "brown copper kettles," under the rules as announced, I would say that they should be legal. A list is a list, whether it's sung or spoken.
SRIV94: "The essence" means the essence of the word itself, not the meaning. That's why people got away with saying "of" in the main game in describing "4th of July" but not "R.N." in describing a nurse.
Interesting, though, that weren't even allowed to sing in the main game on Pyramid Rocks, which was a version specifically about music!