The Monkees minute believes that we are somehow this accomplished rock 'n' roll band that got their own television show. ... you putting the record out like this is just beyond the pale." Within a few months of their debut album, Music Supervisor Don Kirshner would be forcibly dismissed and the Monkees would take control as a real band. The Monkees' first single, "Last Train to Clarksville" b/w "Take a Giant Step", was released in August 1966, just weeks prior to the TV broadcast debut. In conjunction with the first broadcast of the television show on September 12, 1966, on the NBC
Last Train to Trancentral a sampled American-accented voice saying "Okay, everybody, lie down on the floor and keep calm," reportedly spoken by KLF publicist Scott Piering. "Record Mirror" noted the "ethereal atmospherics" of the "Pure Trance" version, but the single was poorly received by "Melody Maker", who interpreted it as a joke: "'Look how mischievous we are', the fatheads giggle!" In comparing "Last Train to Trancentral (Live from the Lost Continent)" to the KLF single "Justified and Ancient", "NME" called the former a "sheer frantic rush". "NME" also named the single as 15th best of 1991. "Splendid" Magazine said of the LP version: "The