Kinks guitarist Dave Davies is pushing back against American electronic artist Moby after he dismissed the band’s classic hit “Lola” as “transphobic.”
Speaking to The Guardian in a recent interview, Moby singled out the 1970 track when asked to name a song he can no longer listen to.
“‘Lola’ by the Kinks came up on a Spotify playlist, and I thought the lyrics were gross and transphobic,” he said. “I like their early music, but I was really taken aback at how unevolved the lyrics are.”
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For the uninitiated, “Lola” tells the story of a chance encounter between the narrator and a character named Lola in a nightclub. The song’s playful, whimsical tone culminates in a twist: Lola is revealed to be transgender, a detail the narrator ultimately embraces.
I am highly insulted that Moby would accuse my brother of being ‘unevolved’ or transphobic in any way.”
— Dave Davies
Written by Ray Davies, the track was reportedly inspired by an experience involving the band’s manager, Robert Wace, who once spent an evening in Paris with a cross-dresser. Davies has also said he researched drag culture to inform the song’s narrative.
Responding on X, Dave Davies — an electric guitar player celebrated for his speaker-slashing antics — issued a series of posts defending both his brother and the song’s intent.
“I am highly insulted that Moby would accuse my brother of being ‘unevolved’ or transphobic in any way,” he wrote.
“I don’t wanna show the guy up, but Moby should be careful what he says,” he added shortly afterward.
Davies also shared a letter from trans punk icon Jayne County, who said she was “thrilled and amazed” that the Kinks addressed trans themes. “Lola will always be one of those songs that for me ‘broke the ice’ so to speak!” she wrote. “A song that breaks down barriers and brings a used to be, hush, hush subject to the forefront and makes it sound perfectly natural to be singing a song about a ‘girl’ named Lola!”
In addition, Davies pointed to the band’s personal experiences, including their association with the Cockettes, an avant-garde performance group that followed the Kinks on tour.
“We appreciated them,” he said. “Why is Moby being so rude about this simple song? We’re not transphobic. Why does he have to have a go at us?”
There were a lot of people who were having problems with the demonstration of their sexuality or how they wanted to appear, and we were at the beginning of all that.”
— Dave Davies
“Lola” arrived at a time when attitudes toward gender and sexuality were far less progressive. Homosexuality had only been partially decriminalized in the U.K. a few years earlier — and even then, only in private settings — a context Davies is keen to emphasize.
“Obviously, there were a lot of people we knew who were transgender at the time, and we knew there were a lot of gay people, but when the Kinks first started, homosexuality was illegal in England,” he said. “So there were a lot of people who were having problems with the demonstration of their sexuality or how they wanted to appear, and we were at the beginning of all that.”
I don’t wanna show the guy up, but Moby should be careful what he says. the cockettesAnd their friends used to follow us around on tour. We appreciated them. Why is Moby being so rude about this simple song? We’re not trans phobic. Why does he have to have a go at us?March 23, 2026
Despite its now-controversial subject matter, “Lola” became one of the band’s biggest hits, though it wasn’t without complications. Some radio stations banned the track outright, citing its content. During the band’s U.S. tour, Ray Davies flew from New York to London and back on June 3, 1970, to re-record a lyric after the BBC objected to the brand name “Coca-Cola,” prompting its replacement with “cherry cola.”
The song went on to top charts in multiple countries, reaching number two in the U.K. and nine on the Billboard Hot 100. Critic Dave Marsh later described it as “the first significantly blatant gay-rock ballad.”
“Lola” was neither the first nor the last time the Kinks engaged with LGBTQ+-related themes. The 1965 track “See My Friends” touches on sexual ambiguity, while later songs such as “Out of the Wardrobe” and the title track from 1977’s Sleepwalker explore identity and self-acceptance more directly.
As The Guardian noted in its coverage of the exchange, Dave Davies also discussed his bisexuality in his 1996 autobiography, Kink.
The Kinks are often celebrated as sonic trailblazers for the distorted guitar sound that powered “You Really Got Me.” But their catalog also suggests a quieter kind of boundary-pushing — one that engaged, however imperfectly, with questions of identity and expression well ahead of the cultural mainstream.
