In a recent interview with The Guardian, Moby listed the Kinks‘ 1970 classic “Lola” as a song that he could “no longer listen to” due to its lyrical content. “[It] 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.”
Kinks guitarist Dave Davies initially responded on Twitter by saying he was “highly insulted that Moby would accuse my brother of being ‘unevolved’ or transphobic in any way.” He also shared a supportive, unreleased essay that the groundbreaking transgender artist Jayne County submitted for the 50th anniversary Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One box set in 2020, where she called “Lola” “one of those songs that for me ‘broke the ice,’ say to speak! 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 a singing a song about a ‘girl’ named Lola!”
When we spoke to Dave Davies to hear more on the subject, he revealed that he just talked on the phone with his brother, Kinks frontman and Lola “songwriter” Ray Davies. “Ray said to me, ‘Who the fuck is Moby?’” Dave Davies says. “I said, ‘He’s someone who does quite well. I don’t know anything about the guy.’”
After the chat, Davies sat down and listened to Moby’s 2000 hit “South Side” and some of his other songs to learn more about him. “I don’t like to criticise anybody,” Davies said. “But I didn’t particularly like his music. And I don’t like him because he’s throwing all this shit up about something that shouldn’t bother him. I don’t think we should make a fuss about it … I do love animals. I appreciate Moby’s work for animals. But he’s misinterpreting us, really.”
Davies also pointed out that Soft Cell frontman Marc Almond defended the song on Instagram. “Oh for God’s sake,” Almond wrote, “a brilliant, funny, affectionate, sweet and actually groundbreaking song telling a Soho story of a naive guy in the city, one of my all-time favourites. Chill out.” (A rep for Moby did not immediately return Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.)
The Kinks guitarist has maintained a very low profile over the past few years, but he says he’s hoping to book some shows in the fall. “But rather than do an out-and-out rock show,” he says. “I want play a more subdued show.”
“He had breakfast with Dennis Diken, the drummer from the Smithereens, and they’re talking about it,” adds Rebecca Wilson, Dave’s girlfriend/assistant. “He’s also been jamming with another guitarist. The shows will be more like MTV Unplugged and Tiny Desk concerts where he’ll tell stories and sing.”
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One definite booking is the Gene Simmons Legends of Rock Expo in Las Vegas in late September where Dave will appear alongside Simmons, Disturbed bassist John Moyer, Vanilla Fudge drummer Carmine Appice, Black Sabbath drummer Vinny Appice, and Kiss guitarist Bruce Kulick. “They’re going to do a big all-star band thing one night,” says Wilson. “Dave might hop onstage.”
Despite all the battles in the past, Dave says he is on very good terms with Ray at the moment. “We got on very good,” says Dave, “very well.”
They’re also working with British painter Christian Furr on a Kinks art exhibit in London. “It’s based on a selfie that Ray and Dave took at a London photo booth in the late 1960s,” says Wilson. “Christian put the image onto these big canvasses and made them look like Andy Warhol paintings. It’s going to be a huge show.”
The Kinks have been completely inactive for the past 30 years, and Ray and Dave’s only public performance since the split was a one-off rendition of “You Really Got Me” at London’s Islington Assembly Hall in 2015.
Is any sort of future reunion possible? “I don’t think, no,” says Dave. “It doesn’t look like it. But who is to say? I can’t answer that. I don’t know for sure.”
From Rolling Stone US
