Last Train to Clarksville "Clarkesville", which is a much more rare spelling, now used only for a town in Georgia. Hart got the idea for the lyrics when he turned on the radio and heard the end of The Beatles' "Paperback Writer". He thought Paul McCartney was singing "Take the last train", and decided to use the line when he found out McCartney was actually singing "Paperback Writer". Hart knew that "The Monkees" TV series was being pitched as a music/comedy series in the spirit of The Beatles movie "A Hard Day's Night", so he was hoping that by emulating The Beatles, this song
Last Train to Clarksville "And I don't know if I'm ever coming home", was an indirect reference about a soldier leaving for the Vietnam War. It has often been presumed that the song refers to Clarksville, Tennessee, which is near Fort Campbell, Kentucky, the home of the 101st Airborne Division, which was then serving in Vietnam. However, according to songwriter Bobby Hart, that was not the case. Instead, according to Hart, "We were just looking for a name that sounded good. There's a little town in northern Arizona I used to go through in the summer on the way to Oak Creek Canyon called