LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-JULY 28, 2019…FORTY NINE YEARS AGO THE KINKS RELEASE THE SONG ‘LOLA’. THE SONG IS ABOUT A GUY WHO MEETS A GIRL IN A CLUB WHO TAKES THE GUY HOME AND ROCKS HIS WORLD. THE TWIST COMES WHEN WE FIND OUT THAT LOLA IS A MAN. RAY DAVIES CLAIMS THAT THE INCIDENT WAS INSPIRED BY A TRUE SITUATION EXPERIENCED BY THE BAND’S MANAGER. HOWEVER, THERE ARE CONFLICTING REPORTS OFFERED UP BY MEMBERS OF THE BAND AND THEN RAY DAVIES HIMSELF. DAVIES REVEALED IN AN INTERVIEW TO Q MAGAZINE IN 2016 THAT:
“The song came out of an experience in a club in Paris. I was dancing with this beautiful blonde, then we went out into the daylight and I saw her stubble. So I drew on that but colored it in, made it more interesting lyrically.”
THERE WAS ALSO SPECULATION FUELED BY A 2004 ARTICLE IN ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE, THAT THIS SONG WAS ACTUALLY INSPIRED BY BY THE FAMOUS ACTRESS CANDY DARLING, WHO KINKS LEAD SINGER RAY DAVIES ALLEGEDLY DATED FOR A BRIEF PERIOD IN TIME . CANDY REALLY MADE A NAME FOR HERSELF.
SHE WAS ALSO MENTIONED IN LOU REED’S ‘WALK ON THE WILD SIDE’ (“Candy came from out on the island, in the backroom she was everybody’s darling”)
RAY DAVIES ALSO SAID:
“I wrote Lola to be a great record, not a great song. Something that people could recognize in the first five seconds. Even the chorus, my two-year-old daughter sang it back to me. I thought, ‘This must catch on.'”
HERE’S A LITTLE TRIVIA CONCERNING THE LYRICS. THE LINE:
“You drink champagne and it tastes just like cherry cola” was recorded as “it tastes just like Coca-Cola.”
THE BBC (BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION) REFUSED TO PLAY IT BECAUSE OF THE COMMERCIAL REFERENCE, SO RAY DAVIES FLEW FROM NEW YORK TO LONDON TO CHANGE THE LYRIC TO GET IT ON THE AIR.
HERE’S THE OFFICIAL VIDEO FOR ‘LOLA’ FROM THE KINKS
