Dave Davies supports the LGBTQ+ community and is not afraid to face backlash because of it.
In a new interview with Classic Rock History, The Kinks guitarist talked about the band’s hits and shared stories about them. While talking about one of the hit songs, ‘Lola,’ he was asked what inspired him to write that song and if he was ever concerned about receiving backlash. Davies replied:
“Interesting question. You’re right; it has become much more common to talk about gay people within the arts and in general. But back then, it wasn’t. All the members of The Kinks were always very open-minded when it came to gay people and the way that people view sex in general. Also, it was more common to talk about those things within our business than within the public sector. So, no, we weren’t concerned with backlash. We just did what came to us and did our best to stay creative.”
How Lola Affected The LGBTQ+ Community
During the same interview, he was asked about the effect the song had on the LGBTQ+ community. He answered:
“Many people have said, ‘Oh, man, ‘Lola’ showed me a different view of the world and helped me grow up. Thank you for that.’ When you’re young, you don’t always realize or fully understand the differences between people. And you don’t always understand how these things can affect people. But we had many friends that were bisexual or in transition, so it was pretty common and maybe more common than people used to think.”
Davies Believes ‘Lola’ Is ‘Very Topical Now’
‘Lola’ was released in 1970. Since then, it caused controversy due to its lyrics. The lyrics implied a romantic encounter with what seemed to be a drag queen or transgender individual. Some radio stations refused to play it, while others edited the ending before the Kinks revealed the gender of Lola.
Even though it caused controversy, it appears that many people didn’t know what the song really meant. During another interview, Davies said about the song:
“A lot of people didn’t really know what it was about! They just thought it was a ‘quirky Kinks song.’ But there was an awful lot of difficult times we had, so it was really quite handy that most people didn’t know what the song was about. When it came to light, people were quite, quite shocked.”
The guitarist also explained why it’s ‘topical’ today:
“But actually nowadays, it’s really quite a very common subject, gender — talking about ‘girls will be boys and boys will be girls.’ We’re going through a big change in attitude and feeling and ‘what are we?’ and ‘why are we?’ — so, it’s very topical now.”
You can hear the song below.