Over the weekend, Moby participated in The Guardian’s “Honest Playlist” column, which asks musicians and other celebrities to compile a list of songs based on specific prompts. For “The song I can no longer listen to,” the producer and DJ opted for “Lola” by the Kinks. “Lola by the Kinks came up on a Spotify playlist, and I thought the lyrics were gross and transphobic,” he said. “I like their early music, but I was really taken aback at how unevolved the lyrics are.”
Kinks guitarist Dave Davies then responded to Moby’s comments about “Lola,” which was written by the band’s frontman and Davies’ brother, Ray. “I am highly insulted that Moby would accuse my brother of being ‘unevolved’ or transphobic in any way,” he wrote on X.
Davies also shared a statement from the pioneering transgender punk artist Jayne County. In it, she writes: “Lola will always be one of those songs that for me ‘broke the ice’ so to speak! A song that breaks down barriers and brings a used to be, hush, hush subject to the forefront and makes it sound perfectly natural to be singing a song about a ‘girl’ named Lola! I don’t think the radio stations picked up on the subject matter but a lot of the fans did and that’s what really matters!” Read County’s full words below.
“Lola” was released in June 1970 as the lead single from that year’s Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround Part One. Whether the song’s subject is a trans woman or a cross-dresser remains a longstanding point of contention. “It really doesn’t matter what sex Lola is,” Ray Davies told Record Mirror in an interview around the time of release. “I think she’s all right.” As “Lola” climbed the charts, UK radio DJs took to fading out the song before its final-verse revelation—“I’m glad I’m a man and so is Lola”—while some Australian stations banned it from airplay entirely.
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Jane County:
Of course, when I first heard the name Lola, it conjured up memories of Marlena Dietrich standing on a stage in a crowded, smokey room singing one of her most famous songs, ‘Lola!’ From the 1930 film ‘The Blue Angel’ ‘I am the naughty Lola all the men know me!’ I always thought that the young lady in the song by The Kinks, had perhaps taken her name from the Dietrich character! And a trashy, dark bar in London’s Soho district would for sure have an ‘interesting’ array of night time denizens! And a woman with a low voice and the name Lola, would certainly qualify for a possible encounter with either a transvestite or transexual!
When I heard the song I was both thrilled and amazed that the Kinks would be singing a song about a trans person and wondered if anyone else had picked up on it! Who was cool or hip enough to realize what The Kinks were singing about! Lola will always be one of those songs that for me ‘broke the ice’ so to speak! A song that breaks down barriers and brings a used to be, hush, hush subject to the forefront and makes it sound perfectly natural to be singing a song about a ‘girl’ named Lola! I don’t think the radio stations picked up on the subject matter but a lot of the fans did and that’s what really matters!
‘Lola’ certainly influenced my song writing and in my song ‘Wonder Woman’ (Are you wondering?) I bring up ‘Lola’ in the song’s lyrics. “Lola with a passion mark kiss.” ‘Lola’ will always be a very special song to me! With this song, The Kinks projected themselves into the modern world. The REAL world! A world full of all kinds of people! Bisexual, Gay, Trans, not just a world full of straight heterosexuals! ‘Lola’ broke down the doors of narrow mindedness and I will always be grateful and happy that The Kinks gave me this incredible song with such a great story! Being Trans myself this will always be a very special song for me.
