‘Lo-lo-lo-lo Lola’: Ray Davies on 50 years of The Kinks’ ahead-of-its-time anthem

In 1970, homosexual acts were still outlawed in parts of Britain and would remain so for more than a decade. Yet two years before that nation even had its first official Gay Pride rally, quintessentially British songwriter Ray Davies of The Kinks wrote “Lola,” a song that embraced a full spectrum of gender nonconformity.

“Girls will be boys and boys will be girls,” he sang, before emphasising “it’s a mixed-up, muddled-up, shook-up world, except for Lola.”

The song shot to No 2 on the UK singles chart, hit the Top 10 in the United States and went all the way to No 1 in five other countries. The response even took its author by surprise.

“I didn’t think the song would be so ahead of its time,” Davies says. “But time has proven it so.”