where exactly do "It's Grim Up North", "Last Train To Trancentral" and their biggest success "3 A.M. Eternal" fit in here?
Isn't "IGUN" based on a poem - Betjeman, or someone like that? The lyrics, I mean, rather than the music. In style it's similar to "The Night Train" - and the title is a reference to (possibly) the Fall or Pink Floyd (with the parts 1 & 2). "LT2T" is based around a classical piece (I think we're all agreed) - at least, the trilling bit known as "Rolling Stock" is. The melody, however, seems original - and is probably the finest thing they ever did, I think. The title, of course, is The Monkees. "3 AM Eternal" seems to stand as their most original work, and as you say Thomas, was their biggest hit. I have read a few articles that claim it's very "808 State-esque", but I've never heard it myself. I sometimes wonder how much influence Graham Lee had in the early recordings, when it was meant to be a flamenco affair (and "Madrugarda Eterna" is surely his track with Jimmy and Bill's beats and samples beneath, in different versions). Some of the album tracks on "The White Room" (and the soundtrack) seem to be totally original though (despite "KSTJ"'s resemblance to "Left To My Own Devices" by the Pet Shop Boys - a debt Bill Drummond acknowledged himself) and probably the "purest" original creation of all would be the instrumental "Mr Hotty Loves You", written by Cauty one his own, for the b-side to Disco 2000's "Uptight". John