Here's the tale of a song that has now been around for over 50 years, and still finds relevancy today. Is it a bastion for trans rights? Watch to find out.
54 years. I feel like 1970 was maybe 30 years ago, then I do the math and go, "OH MY GOD!" Just told my brother ... 2024 is to 1970, as 1970 is to 1916. Life is like a roll of toilet paper: the closer you get to the end, the faster it goes. The clues. "She walked up to me and she asked me to dance" In the "old" days, women would not ask a man to dance: men would do the asking. "I asked her her name in a dark brown voice she said Lola". Not a sweet feminine voice, but a dark brown voice. "I'm not the world's most physical guy, but when she squeezed me tight she nearly broke my spine oh my Lola". "I'm not dumb but I can't understand why she walks like a woman but talks like a man oh my Lola." "She picked me up and sat me on her knee, said to me boy won't you come home with me". "I'm not the world's most masculine man, but I know what I am and I'm glad I'm a man and so's Lola"
I loved the part where the narrator discovers that Lola's not exactly as he expected, rejects her as he feels he should, starts to storm out then realizes his heart wants to stay. "I pushed her away, I walked to the door, I fell to the floor I got down on my knees"
there is an extraordinarily well-produced and well-acted video to Lola which is still out there on YT. It stunned me, and I watched it several times with breaks for thought. The words of the song, combined with the astonishing video, challenged every part of me and, I pray, moved me to a much better place as a human being. Live in peace, my friend.
It's an incredible song. The poetic quality of love, what makes it the subject of the vast majority of songs and poetry, is that it forcibly tears you out of your personal conception of your life and confronts you with reality, to be rejected or embraced along with this other person who has become such a part of your inner life despite not originating from it. Ray was able to see the whole overlooked scope of possibility for sex and gender as the transcendent reality shining behind his narrator's beloved as he becomes conscious of his love for her. Way down past the false dichotomy between the personal and the political, there are only people choosing to fear or love each other, and in the hours or years or seconds between your first brush with queerness and the moment you commit to it, all the love and fear in the whole world are present with you, each pulling upon you to choose them and follow them along their never-ending paths. In the narrator's ignorance and anxiety you can hear a thousand years of bigotry, and in his acceptance and ecstasy you can hear a million queer souls winning the space to blossom into the people they were born to be. Every time this moment plays out, every time someone overcomes fear and chooses to love themselves for who they are, it is as though the whole historical drama of patriarchal oppression has been resolved in miniature, all the forces of darkness throwing themselves pathetically against the wall of your heart and finding that it is stronger.
The lyrics are so clever the whole way through. Even the bit about champagne tasting like cherry/coca cola plays into the vibe of things being different to how they appear. When Ray Davies then goes on to describe Lola's voice as "dark brown", as well as the synaesthetic element of describing a sound as a colour, he's referring back to the colour of cola and alluding to the voice being not what it seems. For the record, I'm AMAB and live my life mostly as a man, but I often present female when I socialise. Am I trans? I know some people who think I am, others who don't. Personally, I don't care if I am or not, and in the same way we can't say Lola is trans or otherwise, but getting offended by a fifty-year-old song referring to a fem-presenting AMAB as a man in what is otherwise a very sympathetic portrayal would be picking an unnecessary fight, imho.
Good observations there. Id say you were probably somewhere on the trans spectrum, but it's ultimately up to you how to identify because you know what's in your own mind better than anyone. The benefit of analysing a song is that the character is fictional, so speculation is encouraged. I don't know if anyone is offended by Lola, but I know that it was better to check if it was problematic than live in ignorance.
If I marry a trans woman, I promise you now, this WILL be the first song we dance to at the reception. If she's my kind of gurl, she'll think it's funny and romantic at the same time, just like me. :))
I'm a 78 year old gay man. In my time there was Christine Jorganson whom we knew. So when Lola came out I made in my mind this calculation for my interpretation. Lola was on her journey to becoming the body women she deserved. And why not have sex and male companion, the narrator was into her so go for it. The rest of the details would get sorted later. I love the song.
i just recently rediscovered this song and have been watching reaction vids just to see how different channels react to the realization, if they even do make that realization. people have been completely positive, and most channels, very progressive in their reactions. i find it to be an affirming song. im not trans though, so im glad that this video was put into my feed, because i was curious how the actual community viewed it.
I do not know if it is better now a days to have hundreds of ways to describe or define reality. When it came out so long ago everyone knew reality. Some did not like it and the rest of us hoped the future would be more enlightened. Well we are in the future and reality is still the same. Is society enlightened yet? I am just grateful that the Kinks and others put it out there for your generation. Thank you, I appreciated the reaction
Thanks for the unusually nuanced take on this... I. LOVE. THIS. SONG. Art, is of course always put into context by the listener, in some way relevant to them, so for context, i'm Trans and non-binary. I actually see some of the verses that people find the most challenging as the most validating to me. Also, as you mentioned, the song is overwhelmingly positive about Lola, so I think it's fair to assume good intent in the song. So here's my take on some of the more controversial bits (cutting right to the point) "Girls will be boys and boys will be girls It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world, except for Lola" So the two takes i've seen on this is either: 1) many people don't transition and are therefore girls who will be boys because they're hiding in their assigned gender. or 2) the world is a mixed up muttled place because people transition. Obviously the 2nd take is classic transphobia (which can get wrecked), and the 1st take is true but sad. I think though, viewing Lola through a non-binary lens, there's a 3rd option, where "girls will be boys, and boys will be girls" is simultaneously celebrating transition, criticizing transphobia and the problems we face that can make life "mixed up, muttled, and shook up", but also perhaps taking a bit of a passive critical look at compulsory binary existence and expressing that Lola is comfortable and happy in her non-binaryness and doesn't feel conflicted about having to be completely one or the other. Obviously, like i said earlier the listener is going to contextualize the art to their own situation, but as you mentioned in your video The Narrator, while definitely a man, also questions his gender a bit in the song, so perhaps it's not such a ridiculous take, especially when combined with the bit that Lola "Walks like a woman but talks like a man".. which.. not everyone is completely comfortable with using a trained voice at all times and some even feel it's a bit of a forced performance (i.e. being expected to use Trans voice at all times, lest they be misgendered for failing to constantly meet every sexist stereotype about being a woman, and some people just want to use the voice that is natural to themselves) That's a whole 'nother can of worms obviously that touches on how compulsory binary existence ties in with gender essentialism which is too much to unpack in this space. "Well, I'm not the world's most masculine man But I know what I am and I'm glad I'm a man And so is Lola" Probably the most controversial bit of the entire song, which 2 camps of interpretation either 1) Lola is glad Narrator is a man or 2) Lola is glad she is a man. Again art...contextualized to the listener. I can, as someone who tried to fit into a binary role for a very long time, see how this is problematic to many Trans people in the context of our society that tries to invalidate us and also force us to occupy one of two roles. Again though, I think there is a 3rd viewpoint, when viewing the song as being about a non-binary trans woman, that while Lola is a 100% valid woman, she's also proud of the parts of her that society would (very wrongly) say make her a man; and so the Narrator, and Lola are just sort of giving the finger to both transphobia and compulsory binary expectations about what it means to be a woman, and she's is instead just actually happy for having the experience of being specifically a trans woman in all that entails. I don't think that necessarily Ray Davies, as a cis person, put anywhere near this degree of thought into the song when writing it, but i don't think that really matters as much as what the song means to us as Trans people. I don't think there's really a lot of songs that celebrate non-binary amab trans people, and society and even trans culture tends to gloss over amab enbies, and equate being non-binary with being an afab "woman-lite". so, not only do i think this song was way ahead of it's time for 1970, but actually it might even be a bit ahead of 2023. I love all the bits of this song, there's really nothing wrong with it at all. If you read all this i'm impressed.
Love your comment, clearly you've thought a lot about this song and your own journey. Wanna know the good news? This video has so surpassed my expectations im going to do more song analysis videos just like this one 😀
Love this reaction / analysis. "Coca-Cola" could also a reference to cocaine, which was quite popular in Soho clubs in the 70s, and another reason the BBC might have requested the lyrics change.
Regardless of opinion, the fact this was released only 3yrs after the law legalised sexual relatioships between men makes Lola truly iconic. One thing you did not consider was the lyrics is descibing someone very young having this experience. I'm not 100% sure but the law at this time only allowed relationships from 21yrs old and above.This makes the subject matter even more risky for its time.
There's no specific mention of age here, but the narrator is clearly inexperienced. And yes the age of consent for gay men was above the age for hetero couples.
I am an American male in my sixties now and will admit that this song "Lola" by the Kinks, influenced me to indulge in relationships and appreciate Ladyboys even thought I have a prefernce for women. Guess that would catorgise me as being Bi. My last words on this is that it is always better to love.
Not necessarily bi. If youre a man attracted to women, youre straight. If youre attracted to a trans woman who you see as a woman & who presents as a woman - you'd still be hetero.
This is fighting really hard to find something bad where there is none. The song is a story about a young, unsophisticated man who falls for a trans person. Being young, naive, and inexperienced, he is first confused, then as the song progresses he is not only accepting but embracing of this new found romance. This is a true story which happened to one of the band members. In a climate where there are constant attacks against the trans community, maybe there should be some happiness found that over 40 yrs ago, there was so little shame certain communities that rather than hide his experience, he chose to share it with the world. There is too much ugly out there, let's please not project it onto the beautiful.
I think it's fairly obvious that i wasn't trying to find anything bad. I'm happy the song has stood the test of time. Myself i admitted the criticisms were minor nit-picks that don't take away from the overall message of acceptance.
Depending on your outlook it's presented as being kinda funny and wrong at the same time. It's a story about an incident that happened to their manager. So while I don't care, and I don't think they did either if someone wants to cross dress or whatever, I do think we all should be up front about it.
I don’t think they were saying it was wrong at all. Perhaps some questioning from a naive young man, hey, what’s going on? There is humor, but ultimately it’s very accepting.
@@sukie584 Exactly. He's confronted the prejudice within himself, and in the end has grown and become a more accepting person because of the encounter. His initial reaction is to run away, but he stops, falls to his knees, etc. He still thinks fondly of Lola.
I love the way Ray Davies lets everybody misgender Lola as a woman, before the big reveal at the end that Lola was a man! Of course, that song could never be recorded today, as people would just be baffled by the idea that a transwoman was a man.
Well that's why I hypothesised that Lola is a trans woman and therefore not a man. Like I pointed out, Lola is described by she/her pronouns, so to call her a woman is actually correct. And also as I pointed out, I think the song was very ahead of its time.
@@joycelinlgbtq A song where somebody dances with a woman and has a few drinks with a woman and kisses a woman was very ahead of its time? Is Ray Davies a transphobe , because he called Lola a man?
I don't. "Cis" (in this case, short for cisgender) is a technical & scientific term that means "not trans". It is used to describe gender, not sexual orientation. Hope this clears up the confusion.
You've actually got the wrong lyrics and possibly, back story. The original song says Coca-Cola, although they got sued by Coke and changed it until the copyright ended.
Lola was written long before you people invented the trans thing. It’s about a male to female cross dresser. The original lyrics are Coca Cola and I know what I am and I bet I’m a man and so is Lola.
54 years. I feel like 1970 was maybe 30 years ago, then I do the math and go, "OH MY GOD!" Just told my brother ... 2024 is to 1970, as 1970 is to 1916.
Life is like a roll of toilet paper: the closer you get to the end, the faster it goes.
The clues.
"She walked up to me and she asked me to dance" In the "old" days, women would not ask a man to dance: men would do the asking.
"I asked her her name in a dark brown voice she said Lola". Not a sweet feminine voice, but a dark brown voice.
"I'm not the world's most physical guy, but when she squeezed me tight she nearly broke my spine oh my Lola".
"I'm not dumb but I can't understand why she walks like a woman but talks like a man oh my Lola."
"She picked me up and sat me on her knee, said to me boy won't you come home with me".
"I'm not the world's most masculine man, but I know what I am and I'm glad I'm a man and so's Lola"
I loved the part where the narrator discovers that Lola's not exactly as he expected, rejects her as he feels he should, starts to storm out then realizes his heart wants to stay.
"I pushed her away, I walked to the door, I fell to the floor
I got down on my knees"
"Nobody's perfect"
@@centuriesofsound except for Lola
there is an extraordinarily well-produced and well-acted video to Lola which is still out there on YT. It stunned me, and I watched it several times with breaks for thought. The words of the song, combined with the astonishing video, challenged every part of me and, I pray, moved me to a much better place as a human being. Live in peace, my friend.
Ill look for that, thanks
@@joycelinlgbtq will youtube let this through? ua-cam.com/video/0AcS49UdrIM/v-deo.html
''It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world, except for Lola'' key line :)
Exactly, the world is confused-Lola isn’t. She knows exactly who she is.
Well that's a relief as I've been singing along to that song all my life and I'm trans too 😄
It's an incredible song. The poetic quality of love, what makes it the subject of the vast majority of songs and poetry, is that it forcibly tears you out of your personal conception of your life and confronts you with reality, to be rejected or embraced along with this other person who has become such a part of your inner life despite not originating from it. Ray was able to see the whole overlooked scope of possibility for sex and gender as the transcendent reality shining behind his narrator's beloved as he becomes conscious of his love for her. Way down past the false dichotomy between the personal and the political, there are only people choosing to fear or love each other, and in the hours or years or seconds between your first brush with queerness and the moment you commit to it, all the love and fear in the whole world are present with you, each pulling upon you to choose them and follow them along their never-ending paths. In the narrator's ignorance and anxiety you can hear a thousand years of bigotry, and in his acceptance and ecstasy you can hear a million queer souls winning the space to blossom into the people they were born to be. Every time this moment plays out, every time someone overcomes fear and chooses to love themselves for who they are, it is as though the whole historical drama of patriarchal oppression has been resolved in miniature, all the forces of darkness throwing themselves pathetically against the wall of your heart and finding that it is stronger.
The lyrics are so clever the whole way through. Even the bit about champagne tasting like cherry/coca cola plays into the vibe of things being different to how they appear. When Ray Davies then goes on to describe Lola's voice as "dark brown", as well as the synaesthetic element of describing a sound as a colour, he's referring back to the colour of cola and alluding to the voice being not what it seems.
For the record, I'm AMAB and live my life mostly as a man, but I often present female when I socialise. Am I trans? I know some people who think I am, others who don't. Personally, I don't care if I am or not, and in the same way we can't say Lola is trans or otherwise, but getting offended by a fifty-year-old song referring to a fem-presenting AMAB as a man in what is otherwise a very sympathetic portrayal would be picking an unnecessary fight, imho.
Good observations there.
Id say you were probably somewhere on the trans spectrum, but it's ultimately up to you how to identify because you know what's in your own mind better than anyone. The benefit of analysing a song is that the character is fictional, so speculation is encouraged.
I don't know if anyone is offended by Lola, but I know that it was better to check if it was problematic than live in ignorance.
If I marry a trans woman, I promise you now, this WILL be the first song we dance to at the reception. If she's my kind of gurl, she'll think it's funny and romantic at the same time, just like me. :))
I'm a 78 year old gay man. In my time there was Christine Jorganson whom we knew. So when Lola came out I made in my mind this calculation for my interpretation. Lola was on her journey to becoming the body women she deserved. And why not have sex and male companion, the narrator was into her so go for it. The rest of the details would get sorted later. I love the song.
i just recently rediscovered this song and have been watching reaction vids just to see how different channels react to the realization, if they even do make that realization. people have been completely positive, and most channels, very progressive in their reactions. i find it to be an affirming song. im not trans though, so im glad that this video was put into my feed, because i was curious how the actual community viewed it.
Lola was a huge hit in Australia at the time. I'm pretty sure we had the Coca Cola version. I remember it being on the radio for years
Love this song. In the day I didn’t know what it portrayed. All good👍
I do not know if it is better now a days to have hundreds of ways to describe or define reality. When it came out so long ago everyone knew reality. Some did not like it and the rest of us hoped the future would be more enlightened. Well we are in the future and reality is still the same. Is society enlightened yet? I am just grateful that the Kinks and others put it out there for your generation. Thank you, I appreciated the reaction
He does say....I wished I could have been that way for my Lola. ....so take that for what you will.
Also see the song Another Love by Stories....
Never heard of it but I'll add it to my list of songs I'd like to investigate.
Thanks for the unusually nuanced take on this...
I. LOVE. THIS. SONG.
Art, is of course always put into context by the listener, in some way relevant to them, so for context, i'm Trans and non-binary. I actually see some of the verses that people find the most challenging as the most validating to me. Also, as you mentioned, the song is overwhelmingly positive about Lola, so I think it's fair to assume good intent in the song.
So here's my take on some of the more controversial bits (cutting right to the point)
"Girls will be boys and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world, except for Lola"
So the two takes i've seen on this is either:
1) many people don't transition and are therefore girls who will be boys because they're hiding in their assigned gender. or
2) the world is a mixed up muttled place because people transition.
Obviously the 2nd take is classic transphobia (which can get wrecked), and the 1st take is true but sad. I think though, viewing Lola through a non-binary lens, there's a 3rd option, where "girls will be boys, and boys will be girls" is simultaneously celebrating transition, criticizing transphobia and the problems we face that can make life "mixed up, muttled, and shook up", but also perhaps taking a bit of a passive critical look at compulsory binary existence and expressing that Lola is comfortable and happy in her non-binaryness and doesn't feel conflicted about having to be completely one or the other.
Obviously, like i said earlier the listener is going to contextualize the art to their own situation, but as you mentioned in your video The Narrator, while definitely a man, also questions his gender a bit in the song, so perhaps it's not such a ridiculous take, especially when combined with the bit that Lola "Walks like a woman but talks like a man".. which.. not everyone is completely comfortable with using a trained voice at all times and some even feel it's a bit of a forced performance (i.e. being expected to use Trans voice at all times, lest they be misgendered for failing to constantly meet every sexist stereotype about being a woman, and some people just want to use the voice that is natural to themselves) That's a whole 'nother can of worms obviously that touches on how compulsory binary existence ties in with gender essentialism which is too much to unpack in this space.
"Well, I'm not the world's most masculine man
But I know what I am and I'm glad I'm a man
And so is Lola"
Probably the most controversial bit of the entire song, which 2 camps of interpretation either
1) Lola is glad Narrator is a man or
2) Lola is glad she is a man.
Again art...contextualized to the listener. I can, as someone who tried to fit into a binary role for a very long time, see how this is problematic to many Trans people in the context of our society that tries to invalidate us and also force us to occupy one of two roles. Again though, I think there is a 3rd viewpoint, when viewing the song as being about a non-binary trans woman, that while Lola is a 100% valid woman, she's also proud of the parts of her that society would (very wrongly) say make her a man; and so the Narrator, and Lola are just sort of giving the finger to both transphobia and compulsory binary expectations about what it means to be a woman, and she's is instead just actually happy for having the experience of being specifically a trans woman in all that entails.
I don't think that necessarily Ray Davies, as a cis person, put anywhere near this degree of thought into the song when writing it, but i don't think that really matters as much as what the song means to us as Trans people. I don't think there's really a lot of songs that celebrate non-binary amab trans people, and society and even trans culture tends to gloss over amab enbies, and equate being non-binary with being an afab "woman-lite". so, not only do i think this song was way ahead of it's time for 1970, but actually it might even be a bit ahead of 2023. I love all the bits of this song, there's really nothing wrong with it at all.
If you read all this i'm impressed.
Love your comment, clearly you've thought a lot about this song and your own journey.
Wanna know the good news? This video has so surpassed my expectations im going to do more song analysis videos just like this one 😀
Love this reaction / analysis.
"Coca-Cola" could also a reference to cocaine, which was quite popular in Soho clubs in the 70s, and another reason the BBC might have requested the lyrics change.
I never thought of that. Subtle if true, but nowhere in the articles i read suggested that.
Regardless of opinion, the fact this was released only 3yrs after the law legalised sexual relatioships between men makes Lola truly iconic. One thing you did not consider was the lyrics is descibing someone very young having this experience. I'm not 100% sure but the law at this time only allowed relationships from 21yrs old and above.This makes the subject matter even more risky for its time.
There's no specific mention of age here, but the narrator is clearly inexperienced. And yes the age of consent for gay men was above the age for hetero couples.
your hunch is correct... its a love song
cherry is the best flavour or raspberry pepsi
❤
I am an American male in my sixties now and will admit that this song "Lola" by the Kinks, influenced me to indulge in relationships and appreciate Ladyboys even thought I have a prefernce for women. Guess that would catorgise me as being Bi. My last words on this is that it is always better to love.
Not necessarily bi. If youre a man attracted to women, youre straight. If youre attracted to a trans woman who you see as a woman & who presents as a woman - you'd still be hetero.
@@joycelinlgbtq Thank you for the clearification
mostly agree with what u said tho , cherry c-o-l-a cola
In the US it's Cherry Cola
❤️❤️
This is fighting really hard to find something bad where there is none.
The song is a story about a young, unsophisticated man who falls for a trans person. Being young, naive, and inexperienced, he is first confused, then as the song progresses he is not only accepting but embracing of this new found romance.
This is a true story which happened to one of the band members.
In a climate where there are constant attacks against the trans community, maybe there should be some happiness found that over 40 yrs ago, there was so little shame certain communities that rather than hide his experience, he chose to share it with the world.
There is too much ugly out there, let's please not project it onto the beautiful.
I think it's fairly obvious that i wasn't trying to find anything bad. I'm happy the song has stood the test of time. Myself i admitted the criticisms were minor nit-picks that don't take away from the overall message of acceptance.
Listen to the lyrics and leave a classic alone.
What's wrong with doing media analysis?
I always understood the last line from the context of the song to mean that Lola, also is a man.
Depending on your outlook it's presented as being kinda funny and wrong at the same time. It's a story about an incident that happened to their manager. So while I don't care, and I don't think they did either if someone wants to cross dress or whatever, I do think we all should be up front about it.
I don’t think they were saying it was wrong at all. Perhaps some questioning from a naive young man, hey, what’s going on? There is humor, but ultimately it’s very accepting.
@@sukie584 Exactly. He's confronted the prejudice within himself, and in the end has grown and become a more accepting person because of the encounter. His initial reaction is to run away, but he stops, falls to his knees, etc. He still thinks fondly of Lola.
I guess Ray Dsvies just didn't have the benefit of your wisdom in 1970.
Balance exists.
I love the way Ray Davies lets everybody misgender Lola as a woman, before the big reveal at the end that Lola was a man!
Of course, that song could never be recorded today, as people would just be baffled by the idea that a transwoman was a man.
Well that's why I hypothesised that Lola is a trans woman and therefore not a man. Like I pointed out, Lola is described by she/her pronouns, so to call her a woman is actually correct.
And also as I pointed out, I think the song was very ahead of its time.
@@joycelinlgbtq A song where somebody dances with a woman and has a few drinks with a woman and kisses a woman was very ahead of its time?
Is Ray Davies a transphobe , because he called Lola a man?
Don't use "CIS" to Refer to Heterosexuals or Straights !
I don't. "Cis" (in this case, short for cisgender) is a technical & scientific term that means "not trans". It is used to describe gender, not sexual orientation. Hope this clears up the confusion.
You've actually got the wrong lyrics and possibly, back story.
The original song says Coca-Cola, although they got sued by Coke and changed it until the copyright ended.
americansongwriter.com/meaning-lola-the-kinks-song-lyrics/ here's my source
No. The BBC banned it for advertising.Coke would have no issue as it would be free advertising.
Lola was written long before you people invented the trans thing. It’s about a male to female cross dresser. The original lyrics are Coca Cola and I know what I am and I bet I’m a man and so is Lola.
Trans people have existed for millennia - long before Lola.