The Kinks’ Ray Davies asked “who the f*** is Moby?” after he said ‘Lola’ was “gross and transphobic”

Met a girl called Lola and I took her back to my place Feeling guilty, feeling scared, hidden cameras everywhere! Stop! Hold on! Stay in control! Girl, I want you here with me But I'm really not as cool as I'd like to be 'Cos there's a red under my bed And there's a little yellow man in my head And there's a true blue inside of me, That keeps stopping me, touching ya, wanting ya, loving ya! Paranoia, the destroyer! Paranoia, the destroyer! I had to look up some of that, but I go that about 95% from memory. The song is a banger, first track on side two of *Give The People What They Want* and it will pretty much demand you turn it up to 11. No, Lola is not a transphobic anything. Our dude is falling hard for a trans girl and sorting out his feelings about it.

Today I leaned too! How was it? Can't listen right now

Another is probably Take a Walk on the Wild Side, released by Lou Reed in 1972.

"It's a mixed-up, muddled-up, shook-up world -- except for Lola".

Speaking from experience a lot of trans people *love* Lola and it gets covered a lot at queer open mics so...

This is super important in this case because the 70s in particular was an important line in our developing scientific understanding of gender in European descended nations. There was early work on the subject in the 40-60s, but it was not until the 70s, so after this song was written, that it started becoming well known among people who were in the know. (Scientists and activists mostly.) It was not until the 80s that most scientists became convinced that the proposition was supported by the evidence and was true, and not until after 2000 that this started really entering the public mainstream consciousness. And this song was before all of that. If the writer was not *specifically* working with the earliest research, the odds of them knowing about any of it is infinitesimal.  So just being positive towards a trans person is exceptionally progressive. The language for it had yet to be developed, so we cannot hold anyone to a standard where we expect them to know things they could not possibly have known about how we would choose to define words in the future.

I just watched Dog Day Afternoon for the first time a couple months back. It is crazy how casual that movie is about the LGBT community, especially considering when it was released. The main protagonist is a bisexual man married to a trans woman, robbing a bank to get her her gender affirmation surgery. It doesnt feel like its beating you over the head with any moral lessons or anything, the characters just feel real and casual. Theres no huge hatred shown throughout the movie, the non-lgbt characters just treat them like people. It kind of blew me away. I dont see that movie being made in 2026 and coming out nearly the same way.

Literally, I’ve always seen it in an incredibly positive way. It’s from 1970 and he realises that love is love and he loves Lola no matter what.

I remember the first time I heard it, when it first came out. I was in my teens, and it was playing on the local Top 40 station. My first reaction was that this song was really great. Then I paid attention to the lyrics, and thought “Wait a minute…how is this allowed on the radio?” Not that I was offended or anything, but I kept thinking it was only a matter of time before someone in government or some “concerned parents” group noticed it, and would certainly get it banned.

The story of the song is way ahead of its time, the wording and the way that got co-opted by shitty people over the years makes it a little challenging to listen to, but I put that entirely on everyone else not the song. They were writing it at a time when the language used was pretty bad and we've had a few decades of people being weird about it

The best thing Moby ever did was get talked over by Space Ghost. Nobody cares, Moby. Nobody cares.

But he did do the main song in the Leonardo DiCaprio classic “The Beach”.

I don't think he wants anything. The Guardian asked him what is a song he can't listen to anymore and his answer was Lola by The Kinks as he heard it recently and thought it was gross and transphobic.

He was asked a question and answered it.

I was a kid when I heard it in the 90s and I was surprised that so many people happily sang along. Between that and the drew carey show, cross dressing seemed surprisingly acceptable being that at the time being called gay was usually meant as an insult.

Not sure but I would guess the last line "I'm glad I'm a man and so is Lola" While it can be interpreted a number of ways is not the "quality of message" you would expect today. But... Lola came out in 1970 for context homosexuality had only been decriminalized 3 years earlier and was still very restrictive. The concept of "Trans" was obsfucated even amongst those in the life style as transvestites even until much more recently. Eddie Izzard (as they are still known professionally) described themselves as transvestite until very recently she shifted to transgender despite that being their preference since childhood. So yeah if someone wrote the song today the themes language and tone would probably be scrutinized as a negative modern view. But for a song written nearly 60 years ago? Moby is being a d***.

If it were released *nowadays* I could see how it might be misconstrued as fetishizing trans people. But given that it was released in *1970*, it was wildly progressive for the time period.

I mean, it's Moby. He's a f****** out of touch moron who thinks he's a genius.

Dated terminology, mostly. Referring to Lola as a 'man', despite the character in the song ultimately not caring. Its sort of a Rocky Horror situation.

Some people just hear what they wanna hear, Pissflaps69.

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

1970.

I thought they said something about Lola being a man or whatever, but I'm quite possibly misremembering! Either way yeah agreed.

Could also mean that Lola is glad that the singer is a man too. It's very much meant to be vague. Given the time it was released and what would or wouldn't make it past censors. It was a cheeky double entendre.

https://i.redd.it/xz5xmlv0qlrg1.gif

"I NEVER HEARD ANY OF THIS SHIT." Meanwhile their favorite song: "Tweeter was a boyscout before she went to Vietnam..." "And Lady Stardust...."

He letched on her when she was underage and later claimed they dated in his memoir. Dude *is* a creep

Yeesh. Just looked into it, somehow I'd never heard about it. 😬

And frankly, I'm more than a little interested as a member of said demographic?

My… …uhhh… …dad ID is in my other khakis…

If you're no longer a dad but have grandkids, I hear you can still get grandfathered in. The law varies more with other family roles. It's all very relative.

The thing is, Don was totally lying and was obsessed with that situation and beating Ginsberg on that pitch.

I'm not dumb but I can't understand how she walks like a woman but talks like a man. That's someone who has never known about that world getting their first glimpse. No anger or animosity, just "huh. That's a new one to me"

Saying in bed she’s a man would probably be controversial if released today. But in the context of a nearly 60 year old song it was not at all intended to be demeaning.

Brevity for relevance

Yeah it's got all the of the standard interband rivalry, where the lead creative eventually becomes the domineering dictator of a band. Throw in the fact that their siblings and everything just gets amplified more. But they had a run from the late sixties to the early 70s with four albums that I put up there with the Beatles personally.