How The Kinks casually made this queer rock ballad a smash hit in 1970
The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, marked a shift in direction and was welcomed by critics, it failed to offer up a big hit single.Subscribe to our daily newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.The band knew they had to keep evolving.
What none of their fans were likely expecting was “Lola”. The track was the opening salvo from their next album, Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One.“Lola” is about a man meeting a mysterious woman in a club in one of London’s more salubrious neighborhoods. “I met her in a club down in old Soho, where you drink champagne and it tastes just like Coca-Cola,” sings Ray Davies. “She walked up to me and she asked me to dance, I asked her her name, and in a dark brown voice she said Lola, La-la-la-la Lola.”For its single release, Davies changed the “Coca-Cola” reference to “cherry cola” to ensure the BBC played it.
The British broadcaster had strict rules about commercial product placement in songs.The narrator notes Lola’s strength (“Well, I’m not the world’s most physical guy but when she squeezed me tight she nearly broke my spine, oh my Lola”) and the deepness of her voice.He finds himself tempted by her unusual charms.“Well, we drank champagne and danced all night, under electric candlelight.
She picked me up and sat me on her knee, and said ‘Dear boy, won’t you come home with me?’”“Well, I’m not the world’s most passionate guy, but when I looked in her eyes, well I almost fell for my Lola.”However, the moment of temptation passes.“I pushed her away, I walked to the door, I fell to the floor, I got down on my knees, then I looked at her and she at me.
