You caught on to the joke right away. Some people listen to the whole song and still don't get it. At 15 when this song came out it took me a little bit.
AGREED, JamesW! It's most definitely time for that Lou Reed counter-counter-culture tune! But Lola and the singer are obviously very comfortable in their own skins. Very relevant to this day; Kinks way ahead of their time with this one!
Ray Davies, songwriter, vocals, arranger. England is his main love. Try Waterloo Set, Sunny Afternoon, Days are excellent songs. Ray is now Sir Ray Davies for his services to music!
My cousins best mate, no sadly no longer with us, used to hang around and play with the Davies brothers before they were famous. He was heavily into drugs and Ray Davies told him it was either the smack or the band. He stayed a drug addict all his life and The Kinks went on to be legends without him.
It's such a fun song, one that I grew up singing along too. I always took as a song as being very positive towards Lola, he was remembering her fondly, and you are right that that is especially impressive to write a positive song about a trans woman in the time period it came out and have it be a hit. The wordplay is wonderful.
I got it right away - but a lot of people my age (now old) - living in the midwest STILL don't seem to get it -- they sing along to the song, but only the lalalalaLola part -- lol lol lol LOLA
I saw The Kinks in the early 80's and I still think about that night. I can still feel, see and hear the energy they gave out. Dave Davies guitar playing blew me away that night, too. A stand out concert from so many others...my favs
Thanks for reacting to my favorite band. Some other good ones are You Really Got Me, All Day and All of the Night and Sunny Afternoon. Those are some of their more famous ones but they have a lot more. Peace.
Back in the day, this song was banned on some local radio stations (in the South, bible thumpers), I heard it on Wolfman Jack's sindicated radio show (LOVED Wolfman, a treasure, listen to some of his old clips), and instantly fell in love with the song, even after I figured out the lyrics. Some of my buddies ribbed me for playing it, but I could cared less, great song, I can listen to it over and over again. There is a live version on their Live album (circa 1980) that is great (crowd participation).
The line (I'm glad I'm a man and so's Lola) could go in 2 directions. She's also glad he's a man or she's also a man. The line (dark brown voice) is hilarious. A voice doesn't usually have a color. Great lyrics.
Love the Kinks. Ray Davies was one of the best lyricists from the British invasion era. Please do more reactions from them. Might I suggest a few: "A Well Respected Man", "Waterloo Sunset", "See My Friends", and "Celluloid Heroes".
Firstly I got to number two in Britain and we all laughed. It was great. The key line I know what I am and I'm glad I'm a man and so is Lola is deliberately ambiguous . Does it mean that Lola is glad he's a man or Lola is a man? It's a very funny word play.
0In the 70`s it was on the radio all the time. I was a teenager in the 70`s, so we all love the song and it`s on the radio all the time even now. Kinks song, "All The Day And All Of The Night", "Come Dancing", "Sunny Afternoon", and more.
Dave Davies was the first to distort the guitar sound in a pop song in "you really got me" He sliced the speaker cone with a razor blade and the rest is history . An amazing band . Ray Davies is a genius .
You really got me was NOT the first guitar distortion by a long shot. Electric guitars have been around since the 1930s, amps at the time were small radios converted to amplifiers. These small tube circuits weren't loud, so to be heard they had to turn them up as high as they could go, and in tube circuits, the harder you work the tubes, the more distortion they make. It wasn't desirable, but they did it anyway. In 1951, Ike turner's band recorded Rocket 88. On the way to the studio, something happened to the amp, there's conflicting stories, but when they used it, it made a distorted tone, different than just turning it up, and they used it. All those 1950s Chicago blues records has some distortion on them, chuck berry had a decently distorted tone in the mid 50s, due to using small fender amps. link wray recorded the only instrumental to be banned from radio "Rumble" in 1958, with a decently distorted guitar. In 1959, vox came out with the AC amps, the AC10, 15 and 30. The 10 and 15 weren't too loud, and could be turned up to distort, without hearing damage. The 30 however would blow out your windows, so people didn't crank those too much. In 1961, country singer Marty Robbins recorded a song called "Don't worry". The solo was overdubbed, and sounded fine, but when it was played back, they discovered this intense bristling distortion, which we call fuzz today, it was a faulty mic preamp, or transformer. A few days later, the guitarist on that song recorded a thing called "The Fuzz", using the same faulty preamp/transformer. The ventures had a circuit made to replicate the sound on don't worry, and recorded the 2000 pound bee with it. At the same time, the engineer on "Don't Worry", Glen snoddy, developed his own circuit to make the "fuzz tone", and sold it to gibson, who began selling it in a compact pedal in 1962. (First guitar pedal). Around 60 or 61, fender amps went through a cosmetic and circuit revision, these are called brown face amps (brown control panel), older fender amps would distort, leo fender wanted less distortion, so the amps were made to make less distortion. By the blackface era, 1965-68 (black control panel), it was nearly impossible to get distortion out of most of them. In 1962, Jim marshall was convinced to begin making amps the young people who visited his store wanted. They wanted extreme volume, and more distortion that older fender amps and vox amps made. the result was an 30 watt behemoth, 4 12 inch speakers all the distortion you could want, and ear damaging volume, and they were cheaper than the vox ac30, and far cheaper than the nearly impossible to find fender amps. Go watch johan segeborn play through a 1963 marshall jtm 45, the amount of distortion it makes is quite shocking. But getting back to the kinks. The stories of speaker slashing is just that, stories. What I hear on that song is simply a vox amp, small and boxy, exactly how an AC10 or AC15 with a fully intact speaker sounds with the amp as loud as it can go.
The song was written after The Kinks manager spent a whole night in a Paris disco dancing with a woman who turned out to be a man. Also the song was banned from the BBC radio stations not too because of the subject matter but because the song mentioned Coca-Cola and advertising on the BBC was not allowed.
Ray had to fly back from New York to London on 3rd June 1970 to overdub one word and then fly back on the same day to rejoin the band's US tour. The 6000 mile round trip (on Concorde) probably makes this the single most expensive word in song lyric history!
Yeah, back in 1970 this song was quite the big deal - much like their song Apeman Ray was taking on some interesting subjects. Another fun song by them is Ducks On The Wall, a real rocker! I saw The Kinks many times over the years and Lola was always a showstopper. Ray would tease the audience with the opening chords, judge the reaction and say "No, you're not ready yet." He would do this two or three times so the crowd was READY when they finally played it. Apeman, Come Dancing, Ducks On The Wall and Celuloid Heroes are all worth a listen.
Yes Lola was a Brola! Well done on getting it so quick. We didn't take any notice as far as I can recall. The old folk, however... You remember going to Soho with your mates? GirlsGirlsGirls! Clubs everywhere.
Yup, I remember it well; used to work in the area in the early 70s right around the time Lola was released. You never knew who or what you might see or hear there.. Definitely had that seedy allure. And it was FULL of young lads on leave from the navy or up from the provinces like the young fellow in the song, wandering around, especially in the evenings, staring goggle-eyed at the advertising posters for strip clubs and naughty movie theatre shows (before the days of readily accessible online naughtiness)..and much else; ripe and ready prey for any rip-off going. Strippers, 'masseuses' and sex workers working downstairs or hurrying home in the early morning through the the Berwick Street vegetable market. Discrete cards in phone booths and by doorbells advertising French tuition with 'strict discipline', etc...Every now and then someone would be knifed in an alley behind a Chinese restaurant... It was all very.. atmospheric! :-)
Love this reaction Harri. Great wordplay and a sense of fun this song, apart from the great music. The Kinks had some amazing songs, will just list one or two. Waterloo Sunset, such a beautiful melodic tune. Peace and look after yourself Harri.
One of the most underrated groups from the British Invasion. It’s rough time when the Beatles and the Stones were at their apex and they were somewhat overshadowed. I heard it was written about their manager who met Lola at a club. Great song!
Good Reaction Harri. This was 1970 and ahead of its time recalling a true story that happened to their Manager at the time. He went to a typical Rip-Off Soho Club where you think you are buying the champagne you paid for but its cherry cola ( original words were COCA Cola !). He ended up with a Transgender person as he was very naive. The other key line is " I'm Glad I'm a Man and so is Lola!" which can, deliberately, be interpreted both ways. haha. I went out on a "date" in London once when a similar thing happened back at "her" place and I made my excuses...
Hahahahah Now that Champagne line makes sense.I didnt realise it was fake Champagne 🤣😂..And you are right..the glad im a man bit could be a double meaning.
No words can adequately express my remorse regarding my inexcusable faux pas. I am mortified that I got to make such a Schoolboy error and I only try to crave your forgiveness for my brief moment of total complete and utter insanity in making this mistake. I have no excuses and I can only apologize, profusely, for my stupidity, once again. You are a good person for pointing this out to me. I'm inconsolable at the moment.....:(
This was written about their manager who was so drunk, he spent the night dancing with a guy in drag. He danced with "her" all night and dinn't nothice the stubble growing in. It was hilarious to the band!!!
I always watch reactors when they do this song. Some of their reactions (or facial expressions) are hilarious. Kudos to them for not making homophobic remarks about this song or the group. When I was growing up, a song like this would have gotten a lot of prejudicial remarks.
The bar was dark, and our hero had enjoyed a few too many drinks. Lola's makeup, hair, and perfume were all on point. And that low, purring voice!! The rest is history... LOL(A) 🙃
Boys will be girls and girls will be boys.. Hummmm, who would have thought the Kinks were prophetic? What a mixed up world!!🙂 Great reaction as usual, Harri.
Great reaction, Sir, you clocked the plot twist quickly; many don't. May I suggest you listen to The Rubettes - 'Under One Roof', from 1976. It was a very brave song for the time, highlighting homophobia in a song about a young gay guy disowned & later murdered by his father for being gay. I was 13 when it came out & broke the top 50 at number 40, & it used to upset me & make me very angry, it tells the story so well. It would make a truly interesting reaction, but more than that, it is a great, challenging song from a time when such topics just weren't spoken about in general company or on TV, & if they were, it was usually in a derogatory, mocking tone or 'made safe for TV' etc, stereotyped manner. You're very personable & I really enjoy yr thoughtful, interesting reactions. UK friendship & appreciation. Peace.
A bit of trivia, when this song was first recorded the opening line said "it tastes just like coca cola" but Coke threatened a lawsuit and so it was re-recorded with "cherry cola". I heard there are some copies of the original out there, probably worth a bit if you can get hold of them!
FYI! The opening lyrics include the line "where you drink champagne and it tastes just like cherry cola. C-O-L-A cola." Originally the line was "tastes just like Coca Cola" but apparently the Coca Cola company got up in arms about them using the name of their patented cola product without permission. And in a song like this about that, no less! LOL The Kinks had to change the lyrics to a more generic "cherry cola". The original version of this song is still out there. I hear this song sometimes on the radio and I can't wait to hear which version they're going to play. Most recently it does include "Coca-cola". I guess the Coca Cola company got over it. ;)
Coke did not sue. They were more than happy with the free advertising. The real problem was with the BBC whose rules prohibit advertising on their air-waves. Without exposure on the Beeb the single had no chance of making the charts so Ray Davies had to fly back from New York to overdub the word "coke-a" with the word "cherry".
Think you are wrong. ''I know who I am' After singing he was down on his knees, he says that is the way he wants it to be. It is your typical love song. LOL
My favourite fact is they had to change coca cola to cherry cola for BBC due to advertising! Either they were fine with subject matter or it passed over there heads even better cherry cola now exists.
Great comments , you could also try Be Bop De Luxe Night Creatures for an exploration of the Trans thing, again completed in the mid 70s , Be Bop Deluxe were a serious and brilliant rock band . 40plus years later it shows these things were known about then and best wishes to trans people today
There may not have been as much taboo as you think in those days hence the song being just a simple piece of art about an experience encountered without the need or ability for a social media war around the statements made in the song.
This is the shortened viersion - you should have pocked the full length version. Oh, it would be advisable to ivest in a decent pair of headphones instead of those earbud things.
Wow I didn't know that...but it makes sense...ty baby jebus for letting me grow up in a big liberal city where I listened to Lola and Lou Reed every day on WXRT💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💫💞
I got down on my knees Then I looked at her and she at me Well, that's the way that I want it to stay And I always want it to be that way for my Lola I think that he always wanted to be on his knees for his Lola. Not that he wanted to get away from her lol. Also I think that we were much more accepting of trans people than we are now, don't forget we grew up with glam rock and male/female looks were very intermixed. It was normal to watch TOTP where men were wearing make-up, and wearing androgynous clothing.
Greatest song ever written about a transgender affair....so racy gor yhe 60's but brilliant story sbd brilliant ending. I love it. Take that conservatives.
I don't know where you got this particular video, but it is severely edited/cut down and missing verses. Too bad because you got the wrong outcome from this one. He did kiss Lola and fell in love with her. There's a line where Lola says; "I'll take you home and make you a man" and that's when he says he wants it to stay that way.
The replacing of 'coca cola' with 'cherry cola' was done for the BBC as their charter did not allow advertising. Both versions were sold in the UK my duaghter had both and sickend me by constently playing them.
Good reaction, but I have to disagree with you here, being a Transwoman myself, I can assure you that nowadays, it most certainly is 'something', there are plenty of folks that do not accept us in 2023!. Great song though!.
