Easily. They were the first, i.e., start to just about everything. You Really Got Me was the spark to start metal. Lola was the first, major recording artist, song about transsexuals. (Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman was the first alternative, before alternative was even a thought, song. And then their range in between from everything like, A Well Respected Man to Come Dancing, is incredible.
Of course you are right Kimberlini and the key line is " I'm glad I'm a man and so is Lola " which, Ray, deliberately, makes ambiguous although we all know what he was saying:)
This song was very popular and on the airwave every where.....A few radio stations banned the song from the air play however the song was still selling and landed in the top 10 on the Billboard charts. A huge hit for the Kinks. Released in 1970.
Me too. Love "Come Dancing". Reminds me of an amusement park that was in my town when I was a kid. All the big bands used to play. Now it's a gated community. 😞
Fun fact: There are two versions of the song. They sing "Coca-Cola" on the album version, and "Cherry Cola" on the single version. The BBC didn't allow advertising in songs (basically anything with a branded name mentioned ,by their definition), or they would be refused airplay. So they changed the lyrics for the single version slightly.
@@donfette5301 The lyrics originally contained the word "Coca-Cola", and as a result the BBC refused to broadcast the song, considering it to be in violation of their policy against product placement.Part of the song was hastily rerecorded by Ray Davies, with the offending line changed to the generic "cherry cola", although in concert the Kinks still used "Coca-Cola".
The Kinks were awesome and are underrated. This song is one of my favorites along with "You Really Got Me", "All Day and All of the Night", and "Come Dancing" Btw Lola is a drag queen. This was in 1970.
I grew up with all the music from the British Invasion & The Mersybeat. The Kinks were huge & had a lot of hits. I especially love their music from the 60's & 70's. "All Day and All of the Night", "Set Me Free", "Tired of Waiting for You", "A Well Respected Man", "Dedicated Follower of Fashion", "Sunny Afternoon", "Dead End Street", "Waterloo Sunset", "Autumn Almanac", "You Really Got Me" etc.
"Girls will be boys and boys will be girls / It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world, except for Lola" ... such a great line - everyone's confused, but Lola's confident in who she is.
One of the top British bands of all time and always interesting they had so many great hits which you must listen to. Amazing to think this was 52 years ago
This song was SO risqué for the time. The only way it got through the radio censors, at the time, was because it was difficult to understand the words. The sound quality wasn’t nearly as good as it is today.
Oh, but it was censored. What we heard here was the uncensored version, The more widely known version replaced Coca Cola with cherry cola and the line "I know what I am, I'm a man , I'm a man and so is Lola" with "I know what I am,and I;m glad I;m a man, and so is Lola"
🤔 Lola worked "at The Copa! Copacabana!" & 💃🏽 " was a showgirl. With yellow feathers in her hair in a dress cut down to there. She would Marengue & do the Cha-cha..." according to 😉 Barry Manilow. 😁🐰
I love the double meaning of the line "And I'm glad I'm a man , and so is Lola" :). Another song I think you may like and has a similar theme. Its "Walk On The Wild Side" by Lou Reed.
The words are ' I know what I am, and I'm glad I'm a man, and so is Lola' It's a bit ambiguous too. Is Lola glad that the guy is a man or is she glad that she herself is a man?
@@heliotropezzz333 Shakespeare used the same kind of ambiguity in the last couplet of sonnet 116 If this be error and upon me prov'd, I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.
The Kinks started in the 60s right after The Beatles. Part of the first “British Invasion”: The Beatles, The Who, the Kinks, The Animals, The Dave Clark Five, The Hollies, The Herman’s Hermits, The Zombies, The Yardbirds, and of course The Rolling Stones. (And many more bands from England and Ireland)
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, north London, in 1963 by brothers Ray and Dave Davies. They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s.The band emerged during the height of British rhythm and blues and Merseybeat, and were briefly part of the British Invasion of the United States until their touring ban in 1965. Their third single, the Ray Davies-penned "You Really Got Me",became an international hit, topping the charts in the United Kingdom and reaching the Top 10 in the United State
The Kinks were pretty edgy with Lola and so was Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground with Take a Walk on the Wild Side. Both groups knew how to push the limit for 1968/69.
I didn't get the Kinks when I was younger. The older I got and the more music I listened to, the more they came into focus. I see and hear them loud and clear now. 🎧
I was something like ten or eleven when I first heard this; knew straightaway who Lola was and it changed my life. Whether she's a drag queen or trans she's a goddess to me and this is still one of my all-time favourite songs fifty years later, kerk
The Kinks a Band way beyond their years they had some great hits "Waterloo Sunset. Lazy Sunday Afternoon Victoria and also Come Dancing" You really need to check these out such a great Band
Thanks, guys - did you actually get that line "I'm not the world's most passionate man.. but I know what I am... I'm a man.. and so was Lola... so great... and way back in the day.. lol Kinks had so many great songs... hope to hear more..
I Saw The Kinks perform this song in 1972 it was a smaller venue in Buffalo it was fantastic check out all their hits starting with sunny afternoon and go dancing LOL keep up the good work guys
No, it didn't. It was a joke about a drunk manager. It's not promoting anything, it's laughing at the guy's intoxication level that he was too drunk to know what he was dealing with.
@@KaiserBlade It did not gross everybody out. Not at all. Not the British public, anyway, who have proved time and time again to be far more tolerant, genuinely, than the people who run the BBC. People appreciated the wit and sexual innuendo of this song. And the compassion and acceptance of Rod Stewart’s Georgie Boy. And from the mid 70s we had a superhroup called Wueen, ffs. Camp gay, cross-dressing and transgender and intersex people have been a mainstream part of British popular culture literally since at least the medieval period. When the Kinks wrote this, Lady Colin Campbell (yes, actual nobility) was well known, and so was Jan (née James) Morris, WW2 officer, journalist on the first ever successful climb of Mount Everest in the 1950s and, from the 1960s until death, one of the UK’s foremost historians. These people were pillars of the establishment, but my town had a bus driver who wore full makeup, skirts, pantyhose and pink court-shoes. Maybe it was just because he looked like Pete Postlethwaite with a five o’clock shadow, but even the crassest teenage boys never troubled him.
@@KaiserBlade I’d love you to somehow explain away the Stones song about their producer Andrew Oldham, that they used to sing live, as “only grossing people out and making them laugh”. If there’s a song that gives the finger to people making the rules for other consenting adults, it’s that one. It took the Reformation a couple of generations in Britain to stamp out the practise of young people mass cross-dressing on certain occasions. They were more concerned, if anything, with doing away with the boy-bishops and abbots of misrule who had some real powers conferred on them at certain festivals.
Someone saved LOLA'S life tonight lol 😂. I absolutely loved your reaction to LOLA. I always loved the song but didn't pay attention to the lyrics At first but when I did it was hilarious 😂 Keep up the awesome reactions.
I love this song. I knew about it years ago and still am amazed at how respectful the singer is to Lola. LOL, wish I had partied with Lola! The genius of the song is that Lola didn't have any problems/issues, it's the listeners.
In the Soho district of London at the time, there were many dance clubs, strip joints and other dubious establishments. Most of these clubs were unlicensed, in basements and rather dark and dingy, save for a few candle shaped lights on the walls (hence the lyric "under electric candle light) Being unlicensed, they sold "Champagne" that was non-alcoholic fizzy "wine" at exorbitant cost which no doubt tasted more like Coca-Cola (or Cherry Cola as the lyrics later became when the BBC insisted they be changed to avoid product placement - the BBC is a commercial-free broadcaster). Most of these clubs offered girls to the clientele (again, watch your wallet!) One such club in Meard Street (between Dean St and Wardour St) was a transvestite club. This song is the story of a young lad, not long left home, going to the bright lights of London and (perhaps accidentally) stumbling into such a club and falling for 'Lola', who 'walks like a woman and talks like a man'. As the lyrics toward the end explain... 'I know what I am, I'm a man, I'm a man and so is Lola'
Y’all tooo dang cute!!! Awesome pick to react!!! Well 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 Lo lo lo lo Lola, lo lo lo lo Lola
Love this song....loved your reaction! BJ had it right....Asia talked him outta it! Lola is a man! "I know what I am in bed I'm a man and so is Lola"...Haha. As always after hearing this it's gonna be stuck in my head for the rest of the night! 💚💚
There are a group of LOLAS that live a few houses down. I lived here in the neighborhood for 10 ten years and Because of this song is why I call them all LOLAS, Being kind, it’s am Amish 🧚🏽🧚🏽🧚🏽
Some of my favorite lyrics from this song: She walked up to me and she asked me to dance, I asked her her name and in a dark brown voice she said Lola, L-O-L-A. Well, I'm not dumb but I can't understand, why she walk like a woman and talk like a man, oh my Lola She picked me up and sat me on her knee, and said "Dear Boy, won't you come home with me?" Girls will be boys and boys will be girls, its a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world except for Lola Well, 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, la-la-la-la Lola
"Ape Man" is my favorite tune by the Kinks. It was the height of the cold war, and the Kinks wanted to move to an island and live like an Ape Man because they don't want to die in a nuclear war.
A WELL RESPECTED MAN is my favorite Kinks song, there's also Sunny Afternoon, You Really Got Me, All Day & All of the Night. Love that you are listening to my generation of music. New subscriber.
lol I'm aussie but i was working overseas and we were working with computers etc. which required cooling and backup power. the back up battery brand was drobo and we had a whole thing that drobo "had hairs on her chest like bear" in russian accent. had a great old time haha. very much inspired by Lola and Sascha Baren Cohen as Borat
BJ, I've watched a lot of reactions, and you caught on faster than anyone else I've seen! Early seventies. We loved the song for its bold statement, lettin the cat outta the bag, and it's just a damn good rock song.
Make sure you do Kinks - Destroyer, because it features the RETURN of Lola 😅 Also, this was the ORIGINAL version of their song - after Coke heard "Coca-Cola" in the lyrics, they forced them to change the lyrics, so I believe they switched to "Cherry Cola" (this was way before "Cherry Coke" was a thing.) Looks like you guys missed it...here are the final lyrics: Well 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 *** This is one of the first gender-bending songs ever put on radio.
That's not how they sing it on the version I always heard. It went... I'm not the world's most masculine man, but I know what I am and what I am is a man, and so is Lola.
Nice! Brings back memories. Lola came out in the summer of 1970. I was 11 years old and loved it. (The lyric at the end: ""I'm a man, I'm a man and so is Lola," got the single banned from BBC radio if I remember correctly.) The first single I ever bought was the follow up to Lola (Ape-man). The Kinks were one of the great 60s/70s bands. Thanks for doing this video. 👍
When I was a teenager in Toronto in the 1980's, the Kinks would roll through town every summer and play Maple Leaf Gardens. I never missed a show, I loved them more than the Rolling Stones and the Who. Ray Davies (the front man) is an exceptionally clever man who's social commentary was unparalelled. He had a younger brother who was 15 when they first became famous and they went on tour. Unfortunately his younger brother wasn't ready for the fame and fortune and had never imagined the type of people who would come up on him. After meeting "Lola" he locked himself in his hotel room and wouldn't come out after that. they had to cancel the tour and bring him home again. Strangely enough, the drummer for the Kinks became the mayor of my little town in southern Ontario decades later. I think his son became the mayor after him and is still there. The Kinks were the ultimate working man's band.
Key lyrics of this awesome classic rock song: Well, 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 La-la-la-la Lola La-la-la-la Lola
"All you single men out there, you need someone to comfy, to lay on the couch with please go get yourself a Lola." That was good, that got a chuckle out of me.
The Kinks go all the way back to the 60s. They were also one of the early rock bands to distort their guitars in a rock song in 1964. Check out You Really Got Me.
The KInks get their start in the early 60's. That may be when the song you first heard from them was from if it was You Really Got Me. Their creative peak was the late 60's with songs like Waterloo Sunset, Shangri-La, David Watts, etc. Lola is the last song of this period coming in the early 70's. They had a popular resurgence beginning in the late 70's and into the 80's. One thing that makes the Kinks stand out is the lyrics. Ray Davies liked to play with the lyrics, so they often don't say quite what they seem to say on the first listen. Lola is the most famous example of this, but certainly not the only one.
Lola is fantastic. Please react to more Kinks' music: Sunny Afternoon, Dead end street, Tired of waiting for you, All day and all of the night, You really got me...💕💕💕💕💕💕
"Lola had the whole package." Yes she did. Or at least "a" package. Boy will be girls and girls will be boys... I think this was based on a true story where one of the band members, or a friend, nearly got picked up in a bar by a "Lola"* *Not that there's anything wrong with that.
The Kinks Dave Davies was one of the first to utilize electric guitar distortion. His signature distorted power chord riffs in the early/mid 60’s on “You Really Got Me” & “All Day and All of the Night“ would HEAVILY influence future rock & roll, heavy metal, and, punk rock artists/bands. The Kinks, led by Brothers Ray & Dave Davies, also introduced the World to “proper British Rock & Roll” w/songs like “Victoria”, & “Dedicated Follower of Fashion”, among others.
As a nonbinary person, I love this song! Waaay ahead of it's time and the story behind the song is pretty funny too haha 🤣 You should also react to The Kinks - On the Outside. It was written for their friend to convince them to come out of the closet and 'live on the outside' with them. It's beautiful!! 🤗
The Kinks were ahead of their time. It rings true today. If they would have added Lola had blue hair, it would have been prolific. How the past, tells the future through song. That's the Kinks.
The Kinks, like the Who and the Small Faces, played on bombsites as children. They realized a lost world and and documented it along with the new one in their songs. Two types of "nostalgia", one for the past and one for the future, so to speak. The latter being a form of naive hope. "We are bound unto a wheel of fire", Shakespeare, King Lear.
No no y'all! Lola is a Drag Queen! It is 70's music guys. I've always loved this song. I have a lot of games friends and a few cousins that told me that Lola is definitely a man. Lol!
A song whose time has finally come (53 years later): "You drink champagne and it tastes just like Bud Light... I asked her name and she said Dylan Mulaney..." 🍺🧏🏽♀️🍺😆🍺
I've been watching a few of these Lola reactions today, just for giggles to see if people get it and hats off to BJ he clicked right away 👌👌 most people have had to wait till the last 2 lines for it to click.....respect the BJ 😂😂
from the 60's. All Day and All of the Night. Well Respected Man. Sunny Afternoon, You Really Got Me. Their 1977 album, SleepWalker". is full of great songs.
they wrote the song after the manager connected to a 'woman' at a get together . He was oblivious, but the band knew course as the night went on 'her' stubble started to show.
The kinks are a great band and was part of the first British invasion of America with the Beatles in the 60s ! I love gthe reactions you guys put !! Great chemistry!!!
Lola is VERY comfy in both body and brain; you can say "S/he's a well-adjusted human being!" And her new friend from the club is very open-minded as well!!
Great reaction, you both could not stop smiling, still an hilarious song fifty two years later. I have the battered 45rpm single l brought back in l think 1970. Ray Davies who wrote and produced the song said it was inspired by an experience the Kinks manager Robert Wace had in a Paris night club. Lola was quite a common stage name used by 'Drag Queens' in 1960's London night clubs. Lola is also the name of my pet American bull dog and she is definitely a strong girl, we were watching your reaction together.....lol
When this song was released in 1970, it was played on the radio frequently. My younger sister hated this song whenever it came on, with a purple passion. She really didn't like what they were singing about......her name is Lola
This song is one of my top 100 favorite songs, and has one of my most favorite double enterndres - "But I know what I am and I'm glad I'm a man. And so is Lola...." Hilarious! PS. I thought it was late 60s, but I looked it up and it was indeed 70, so good guess.
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Lola certainly had the “whole package”.
Hilarious
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I'm dying!!!!🍆🍆🍆🍆
Lol!
Dammit...I was gonna say that..hahaha!
😂😂😂
The kinks are one of the most underrated bands of all time
They’re pretty highly rated actually. Regularly in the the top ten of best bands of all time lists.
Better than the Beatles
FACT!!
You are so right. I've been telling people this since I started listening to The Kinks.
Easily. They were the first, i.e., start to just about everything.
You Really Got Me was the spark to start metal.
Lola was the first, major recording artist, song about transsexuals.
(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman was the first alternative, before alternative was even a thought, song.
And then their range in between from everything like, A Well Respected Man to Come Dancing, is incredible.
This is a fun song. The best part of any reaction is when people realize what the song is about. 🙂
Yes! I was 15 and loved this song...my boyfriend pointed out the lyrics..hahaha. I love it!!
@@acidqueen6460 I'm not sure asia n bj figured it out lol
@@t-bone6467 Here's the clue "Girls will be boys and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world, except for Lola"
@@dp67dl93 the last line " I know what I am and what I am is a Man and so's Lola"
@@bobcorbin3294 yes👍
😂😁Think y’all might have needed lyrics for this one- one very important line- he knows what he is, he’s a man -AND so is Lola- love y’all!💖💙✌️👍
Yep, sure seems they did NOT hear THAT line! :)
I thought BJ caught it…….but no……lol
Of course you are right Kimberlini and the key line is " I'm glad I'm a man and so is Lola " which, Ray, deliberately, makes ambiguous although we all know what he was saying:)
🤣🤣💗💗💗
They will never know cause they never read comments. Cheers
This song was very popular and on the airwave every where.....A few radio stations banned the song from the air play however the song was still selling and landed in the top 10 on the Billboard charts. A huge hit for the Kinks. Released in 1970.
It was banned in England.... Because originally the lyric said coca cola. BBC couldn't promote products. They had to change it to cherry cola.
This song was certainly ahead of it's time. The Kinks are a great British group and I have been a fan for decades!
Me too. Love "Come Dancing". Reminds me of an amusement park that was in my town when I was a kid. All the big bands used to play. Now it's a gated community. 😞
no...its that times are lived over and over....we had no issues with trans people in the 60...
Correction, behind the times. There is nothing new on this Earth.
The song was about an actual experience one of the band members had.
How is it ahead of its time? No, it is not.
"You Really Got Me" is another big hit by the Kinks . Great reaction 🥰
And Van Halen did a great cover.
For some reason "Tired of waiting" pops in my head at regular intervals. It's one of those song's that gets stuck in your head.
Tired of waiting and All Day and All of the Night
Sunny Afternoon!
Ray Davies wrote this after their manager got drunk at a club and picked up what he though was a young lady
True. A very young Manager experiencing Late 1960's "swinging" London for the first time:)
I thought it was Ray himself.
The rumor that I heard was Ray himself and the band made him write it.
The manager did... exactly right
If that's true it's absolute class 🤣🤣
Fun fact: There are two versions of the song.
They sing "Coca-Cola" on the album version, and "Cherry Cola" on the single version.
The BBC didn't allow advertising in songs (basically anything with a branded name mentioned ,by their definition), or they would be refused airplay.
So they changed the lyrics for the single version slightly.
Thank you! I knew I remembered it as Cherry Cola and was mighty confused.
@ernestocheguewasa4601: I'm sure that Coke wasn't too thrilled about it, either, considering the subject matter,
you know, drag queens, etc.
Fifty years on, this song still rocks, and it's relevant.
Its Timeless
@Donatella Loncar Yes, another version with “cherry.” Not sure why they changed it.
@@donfette5301 The lyrics originally contained the word "Coca-Cola", and as a result the BBC refused to broadcast the song, considering it to be in violation of their policy against product placement.Part of the song was hastily rerecorded by Ray Davies, with the offending line changed to the generic "cherry cola", although in concert the Kinks still used "Coca-Cola".
@Donatella Loncar the album version has the lyric "Coca-Cola" the single version has the lyric "cherry-cola".
@@radimradyys4620 I think it also had to do with the controversial context of the song the BBC didn't like.
The Kinks were awesome and are underrated. This song is one of my favorites along with "You Really Got Me", "All Day and All of the Night", and "Come Dancing"
Btw Lola is a drag queen. This was in 1970.
EEEEWWWWW!!
Oh I agree. My teenage years were Kinks years
Don't forget Sunny Afternoon!
I grew up with all the music from the British Invasion & The Mersybeat. The Kinks were huge & had a lot of hits. I especially love their music from the 60's & 70's. "All Day and All of the Night", "Set Me Free", "Tired of Waiting for You", "A Well Respected Man", "Dedicated Follower of Fashion", "Sunny Afternoon", "Dead End Street", "Waterloo Sunset", "Autumn Almanac", "You Really Got Me" etc.
"Come dancing" too. 😁
Yeah all great songs 🙌🏻
"Girls will be boys and boys will be girls / It's a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world, except for Lola" ... such a great line - everyone's confused, but Lola's confident in who she is.
follow'd immediatly by, "I know what i am and thats a man and so is Lola, la la la Lola"
@@chasecarlson1653 which is deliberately ambiguous :)
Things have only gotten even more confusing.
@@chasecarlson1653 This why in my humble opinion is probably one of the best songs ever written.
No matter what HE wants to be, nature called it for HIM.
The Kinks--the most underrated from the bands of the British invasion
Love the reaction and channel you guys !!
One of the great classics of all time, way ahead of its time. Oh but really nails this song is the freaking guitar, my god it's through the roof.
One of the top British bands of all time and always interesting they had so many great hits which you must listen to. Amazing to think this was 52 years ago
This song was SO risqué for the time. The only way it got through the radio censors, at the time, was because it was difficult to understand the words. The sound quality wasn’t nearly as good as it is today.
The words Coca Cola had to be replaced in the widely known version so it was changed to cherry cola.
it was the cola line that got the band in the most trouble
Oh, but it was censored. What we heard here was the uncensored version, The more widely known version replaced Coca Cola with cherry cola and the line "I know what I am, I'm a man , I'm a man and so is Lola" with "I know what I am,and I;m glad I;m a man, and so is Lola"
@@mickbacon8542 yes the radio and single version you right
So true, I was in my early teens, loved the tune, but had no idea what they were saying, lol.
Timeless and ahead of their time.
You would also like "Come Dancing" by the Kinks.
Lola, as a name, also has a history, in the musical "Damn Yankees" "What Every Lola Wants, Lola Gets"
They were part of the British Invasion and an underrated group. They were one of the very best.
Come dancing is great
My favorite Kinks song. Great reco, Ken!
Whatever Lola wants,Lola gets,is the line,Ken.
🤔 Lola worked "at The Copa! Copacabana!" & 💃🏽 " was a showgirl. With yellow feathers in her hair in a dress cut down to there. She would Marengue & do the Cha-cha..." according to 😉 Barry Manilow. 😁🐰
I love the double meaning of the line "And I'm glad I'm a man , and so is Lola" :). Another song I think you may like and has a similar theme. Its "Walk On The Wild Side" by Lou Reed.
"In bed I'M A MAN and so is Lola"
@@romanbotello15 - Nice, but not quite!
@@coachhannah2403 wrong
The Beatles " Get Back".
“I’m not the world’s most passionate man but I know what I am & what I am is a man & so was Lola”
The words are ' I know what I am, and I'm glad I'm a man, and so is Lola' It's a bit ambiguous too. Is Lola glad that the guy is a man or is she glad that she herself is a man?
@@heliotropezzz333 Both.
@@gclark01 Both is also valid. It certainly is clever wording
@@heliotropezzz333 Shakespeare used the same kind of ambiguity in the last couplet of sonnet 116
If this be error and upon me prov'd,
I never writ, nor no man ever lov'd.
@@petenorton883 True
Amazing band, amazing guitar, amazing lyrics, the kinks.
Add the line “boys will be girls and girls will be boys it’s the next step in this mixed up world”. And this was put out in the in 1970.
The Kinks started in the 60s right after The Beatles. Part of the first “British Invasion”:
The Beatles, The Who, the Kinks, The Animals, The Dave Clark Five, The Hollies, The Herman’s Hermits, The Zombies, The Yardbirds, and of course The Rolling Stones. (And many more bands from England and Ireland)
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, north London, in 1963 by brothers Ray and Dave Davies. They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s.The band emerged during the height of British rhythm and blues and Merseybeat, and were briefly part of the British Invasion of the United States until their touring ban in 1965. Their third single, the Ray Davies-penned "You Really Got Me",became an international hit, topping the charts in the United Kingdom and reaching the Top 10 in the United State
It's been said/written that if you want to understand the British psyche, more specifically the English one, listen to The Kinks and study the lyrics
The Kinks were pretty edgy with Lola and so was Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground with Take a Walk on the Wild Side. Both groups knew how to push the limit for 1968/69.
Walk on the Wild Side wasn't VU
If you're going to do some Lou Reed, ya gotta do 'Perfect Day'!
@@izzonj Yes, but Lou Reed wrote it while VU was still going.
This really highlights the sense of humor that pervade s many Kinks songs.
Try Waterloo Sunset by the Kinks next, one of the most beautiful songs ever recorded.
I didn't get the Kinks when I was younger. The older I got and the more music I listened to, the more they came into focus. I see and hear them loud and clear now. 🎧
This song has such a positive message that no matter what Lola is he still loves her the same
Its true, he keeps singing 'My Lola'
I think this would be a perfect time for Asia and BJ to watch the British independent film from 1992 called The Crying Game.
I was something like ten or eleven when I first heard this; knew straightaway who Lola was and it changed my life. Whether she's a drag queen or trans she's a goddess to me and this is still one of my all-time favourite songs fifty years later, kerk
Heard it as a tween, & it changed my life, as well
Great reaction guys. Classic Kinks. Still sounds brilliant all these years down the line.
The Kinks a Band way beyond their years they had some great hits "Waterloo Sunset. Lazy Sunday Afternoon Victoria and also Come Dancing" You really need to check these out such a great Band
You probably need to do "Walk on the Wild Side" by Lou Reed next.
Yes!
Way ahead of its time. Great song as this one is
One of the greatest songs ever recorded! So glad I saw The Kinks live at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, in 1977!
Thanks, guys - did you actually get that line "I'm not the world's most passionate man.. but I know what I am... I'm a man.. and so was Lola... so great... and way back in the day.. lol Kinks had so many great songs... hope to hear more..
"I know what I am, in BED I'M A MAN and so is Lola"
I Saw The Kinks perform this song in 1972 it was a smaller venue in Buffalo it was fantastic check out all their hits starting with sunny afternoon and go dancing LOL keep up the good work guys
This song did a lot for gender equality in a time when it was not cool, he knows who she is and he loves his Lola anyway!
All it did was gross everyone out and make them laugh. Like it still does. Never confuse toleration with exceptance.
No, it didn't. It was a joke about a drunk manager. It's not promoting anything, it's laughing at the guy's intoxication level that he was too drunk to know what he was dealing with.
@@KaiserBlade It did not gross everybody out. Not at all. Not the British public, anyway, who have proved time and time again to be far more tolerant, genuinely, than the people who run the BBC.
People appreciated the wit and sexual innuendo of this song. And the compassion and acceptance of Rod Stewart’s Georgie Boy. And from the mid 70s we had a superhroup called Wueen, ffs.
Camp gay, cross-dressing and transgender and intersex people have been a mainstream part of British popular culture literally since at least the medieval period.
When the Kinks wrote this, Lady Colin Campbell (yes, actual nobility) was well known, and so was Jan (née James) Morris, WW2 officer, journalist on the first ever successful climb of Mount Everest in the 1950s and, from the 1960s until death, one of the UK’s foremost historians. These people were pillars of the establishment, but my town had a bus driver who wore full makeup, skirts, pantyhose and pink court-shoes. Maybe it was just because he looked like Pete Postlethwaite with a five o’clock shadow, but even the crassest teenage boys never troubled him.
Sorry about the typos. Queen. People didn’t think Freddie named them after Brenda.
@@KaiserBlade I’d love you to somehow explain away the Stones song about their producer Andrew Oldham, that they used to sing live, as “only grossing people out and making them laugh”. If there’s a song that gives the finger to people making the rules for other consenting adults, it’s that one.
It took the Reformation a couple of generations in Britain to stamp out the practise of young people mass cross-dressing on certain occasions. They were more concerned, if anything, with doing away with the boy-bishops and abbots of misrule who had some real powers conferred on them at certain festivals.
Someone saved LOLA'S life tonight lol 😂. I absolutely loved your reaction to LOLA. I always loved the song but didn't pay attention to the lyrics At first but when I did it was hilarious 😂 Keep up the awesome reactions.
I love this song. I knew about it years ago and still am amazed at how respectful the singer is to Lola. LOL, wish I had partied with Lola! The genius of the song is that Lola didn't have any problems/issues, it's the listeners.
Lola’s a man baby!
Need to hear their song Ape Man.
Love Apeman! The lyrics are still relevant today...
In the Soho district of London at the time, there were many dance clubs, strip joints and other dubious establishments. Most of these clubs were unlicensed, in basements and rather dark and dingy, save for a few candle shaped lights on the walls (hence the lyric "under electric candle light) Being unlicensed, they sold "Champagne" that was non-alcoholic fizzy "wine" at exorbitant cost which no doubt tasted more like Coca-Cola (or Cherry Cola as the lyrics later became when the BBC insisted they be changed to avoid product placement - the BBC is a commercial-free broadcaster). Most of these clubs offered girls to the clientele (again, watch your wallet!) One such club in Meard Street (between Dean St and Wardour St) was a transvestite club.
This song is the story of a young lad, not long left home, going to the bright lights of London and (perhaps accidentally) stumbling into such a club and falling for 'Lola', who 'walks like a woman and talks like a man'. As the lyrics toward the end explain... 'I know what I am, I'm a man, I'm a man and so is Lola'
Y’all tooo dang cute!!! Awesome pick to react!!!
Well 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
Lo lo lo lo Lola, lo lo lo lo Lola
Greatest line ever!!! 🤣🤣
Love this song....loved your reaction! BJ had it right....Asia talked him outta it! Lola is a man! "I know what I am in bed I'm a man and so is Lola"...Haha. As always after hearing this it's gonna be stuck in my head for the rest of the night! 💚💚
"I know what I am and I'm glad I'm a man, and so is Lola". This is my go to Karaoke song
@@S.Parrow well shit...lol. I've been singing along all wrong all these years. Hahaha. Thanks for correcting me. 🤣💚
@@S.Parrow Lola is still a trans woman 🤣
I love it when people who have never heard LOLA, the look on theirs faces is priceless.
Love your reactions. Pull up the lyrics when you watch this, and you'll understand the feeling behind it better. Love you guys.
The Kinks always made social commentary a lot of fun :) This is probably the first song about the subject matter we hear a lot about these days :)
Song was less about social commentary and more a joke about their drunk manager not being able to tell the difference.
There are a group of LOLAS that live a few houses down. I lived here in the neighborhood for 10 ten years and Because of this song is why I call them all LOLAS, Being kind, it’s am Amish 🧚🏽🧚🏽🧚🏽
Some of my favorite lyrics from this song:
She walked up to me and she asked me to dance, I asked her her name and in a dark brown voice she said Lola, L-O-L-A.
Well, I'm not dumb but I can't understand, why she walk like a woman and talk like a man, oh my Lola
She picked me up and sat me on her knee, and said "Dear Boy, won't you come home with me?"
Girls will be boys and boys will be girls, its a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world except for Lola
Well, 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, la-la-la-la Lola
I asked her name and in a GUTTURAL voice(def. a deep rough voice)
Dang! I kept waiting for them to figure it out, and they just never got there 😂😂. The whole package lmao🤣
Me too 😂😂😂😂😂😂
"Ape Man" is my favorite tune by the Kinks. It was the height of the cold war, and the Kinks wanted to move to an island and live like an Ape Man because they don't want to die in a nuclear war.
Ape Man
@@robertmills8640 I edited the spelling correction. Thanks
@@Wasted_Talent007 Yeah I figured a typo, didn't if Asia & BJ would realize it. BTW , agree about Apeman.🙂
A WELL RESPECTED MAN is my favorite Kinks song, there's also Sunny Afternoon, You Really Got Me, All Day & All of the Night. Love that you are listening to my generation of music. New subscriber.
I’m a man and so is Lola…lovelovelove ❤️✌🏻🌸
lol I'm aussie but i was working overseas and we were working with computers etc. which required cooling and backup power. the back up battery brand was drobo and we had a whole thing that drobo "had hairs on her chest like bear" in russian accent. had a great old time haha. very much inspired by Lola and Sascha Baren Cohen as Borat
Love your hair Asia!
Excellent choice. Classic. A GREAT song with very special lyrics. Party lights & liquid influences.
Always check for the "Adam's Apple". I'm sure Lola had it.
Hahahahahaha good one
BJ, I've watched a lot of reactions, and you caught on faster than anyone else I've seen! Early seventies. We loved the song for its bold statement, lettin the cat outta the bag, and it's just a damn good rock song.
Make sure you do Kinks - Destroyer, because it features the RETURN of Lola 😅
Also, this was the ORIGINAL version of their song - after Coke heard "Coca-Cola" in the lyrics, they forced them to change the lyrics, so I believe they switched to "Cherry Cola" (this was way before "Cherry Coke" was a thing.)
Looks like you guys missed it...here are the final lyrics:
Well 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 ***
This is one of the first gender-bending songs ever put on radio.
Coca-Cola would have loved all that free advertising. The BBC was the reason for the change.
@@EaterOfBaconSandwiches Ah ok, guess I heard the incorrect story 😅
Was this the first one, or was it Lou Reed's Take a Walk on the Wild Side? I am not sure about the timing.
That's not how they sing it on the version I always heard. It went...
I'm not the world's most masculine man, but I know what I am and what I am is a man, and so is Lola.
@@christhompson2006 I always hear glad.
Nice! Brings back memories. Lola came out in the summer of 1970. I was 11 years old and loved it. (The lyric at the end: ""I'm a man, I'm a man and so is Lola," got the single banned from BBC radio if I remember correctly.) The first single I ever bought was the follow up to Lola (Ape-man). The Kinks were one of the great 60s/70s bands. Thanks for doing this video. 👍
The perfect song to do hammered at Karaoke trust me on this =D
When I was a teenager in Toronto in the 1980's, the Kinks would roll through town every summer and play Maple Leaf Gardens. I never missed a show, I loved them more than the Rolling Stones and the Who. Ray Davies (the front man) is an exceptionally clever man who's social commentary was unparalelled. He had a younger brother who was 15 when they first became famous and they went on tour. Unfortunately his younger brother wasn't ready for the fame and fortune and had never imagined the type of people who would come up on him. After meeting "Lola" he locked himself in his hotel room and wouldn't come out after that. they had to cancel the tour and bring him home again.
Strangely enough, the drummer for the Kinks became the mayor of my little town in southern Ontario decades later. I think his son became the mayor after him and is still there.
The Kinks were the ultimate working man's band.
Key lyrics of this awesome classic rock song:
Well, 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
La-la-la-la Lola
La-la-la-la Lola
The last line in the song said, "I know what I am I'm a man and so is Lola"
"All you single men out there, you need someone to comfy, to lay on the couch with please go get yourself a Lola."
That was good, that got a chuckle out of me.
I laughed too...but I'm going to pass on that one Brad.
BL, "You all need to get you a Lola."
Uh, no thanks. I like it when there is only one "package " in the room when the lights go off.
“Well, 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”
The Kinks go all the way back to the 60s. They were also one of the early rock bands to distort their guitars in a rock song in 1964. Check out You Really Got Me.
la, la, la, Lola just sticks in your head.
The KInks get their start in the early 60's. That may be when the song you first heard from them was from if it was You Really Got Me. Their creative peak was the late 60's with songs like Waterloo Sunset, Shangri-La, David Watts, etc. Lola is the last song of this period coming in the early 70's. They had a popular resurgence beginning in the late 70's and into the 80's.
One thing that makes the Kinks stand out is the lyrics. Ray Davies liked to play with the lyrics, so they often don't say quite what they seem to say on the first listen. Lola is the most famous example of this, but certainly not the only one.
Lola is fantastic. Please react to more Kinks' music: Sunny Afternoon, Dead end street, Tired of waiting for you, All day and all of the night, You really got me...💕💕💕💕💕💕
And Come Dancing.
Oh so much I agree. Discover the Kinks and you'll love them
First time hearing the Kinks?! You people live under a rock?!
I don’t think that’s fair as those of us young in the 60’s wouldn’t have known a lot, if any, 30’s music
"Lola had the whole package." Yes she did. Or at least "a" package.
Boy will be girls and girls will be boys...
I think this was based on a true story where one of the band members, or a friend, nearly got picked up in a bar by a "Lola"*
*Not that there's anything wrong with that.
It was their manager that this happened to.
Not nearly but did and loved it
The Kinks. The original punks! lol poor him meeting Mr Lola. hahahaa
Ray Davies is the best storyteller. Lola is a man. Nobody but Ray could write a song like this. I loved it the first time I heard it.
It's a very funny song to me.
The Kinks Dave Davies was one of the first to utilize electric guitar distortion.
His signature distorted power chord riffs in the early/mid 60’s on “You Really Got Me” & “All Day and All of the Night“ would HEAVILY influence future rock & roll, heavy metal, and, punk rock artists/bands.
The Kinks, led by Brothers Ray & Dave Davies, also introduced the World to “proper British Rock & Roll” w/songs like “Victoria”, & “Dedicated Follower of Fashion”, among others.
As a nonbinary person, I love this song! Waaay ahead of it's time and the story behind the song is pretty funny too haha 🤣
You should also react to The Kinks - On the Outside. It was written for their friend to convince them to come out of the closet and 'live on the outside' with them. It's beautiful!! 🤗
The Kinks were ahead of their time. It rings true today. If they would have added Lola had blue hair, it would have been prolific. How the past, tells the future through song. That's the Kinks.
The Kinks, like the Who and the Small Faces, played on bombsites as children. They realized a lost world and and documented it along with the new one in their songs. Two types of "nostalgia", one for the past and one for the future, so to speak. The latter being a form of naive hope. "We are bound unto a wheel of fire", Shakespeare, King Lear.
THIS WAS A BIG HIT FOR SURE BUT EVENNNN BIGGER WAS : YOU REALLY GOT ME :) AND ALSO : ALL DAY AND ALL OF THE NIGHT :) YEAH LOLA WAS IN 70 BJ
This song changed my life when I was about 12 and it was a delight to watch you two react to it :)
No no y'all! Lola is a Drag Queen! It is 70's music guys. I've always loved this song. I have a lot of games friends and a few cousins that told me that Lola is definitely a man. Lol!
I meant to say gay friends!
It's actually such a sweet love song when you read the lyrics, despite people calling it a joke, it's just a sweet love song!
A song whose time has finally come (53 years later):
"You drink champagne and it tastes just like Bud Light...
I asked her name and she said Dylan Mulaney..."
🍺🧏🏽♀️🍺😆🍺
I've been watching a few of these Lola reactions today, just for giggles to see if people get it and hats off to BJ he clicked right away 👌👌 most people have had to wait till the last 2 lines for it to click.....respect the BJ 😂😂
Yep.. we loved everyone in the 70’s and beyond.
from the 60's. All Day and All of the Night. Well Respected Man. Sunny Afternoon, You Really Got Me. Their 1977 album, SleepWalker". is full of great songs.
This is simply a fun song telling a funny story. We loved it when it came out. We would sing along out loud. Great song.
Who knew the Kinks wld b singing into the future like 2022, still love ths song after all these yrs, go 2the clubs and find out...FACTS
A classic and way ahead of its time!!
👍😎
they wrote the song after the manager connected to a 'woman' at a get together . He was oblivious, but the band knew course as the night went on 'her' stubble started to show.
The kinks are a great band and was part of the first British invasion of America with the Beatles in the 60s ! I love gthe reactions you guys put !! Great chemistry!!!
Lola is VERY comfy in both body and brain; you can say "S/he's a well-adjusted human being!" And her new friend from the club is very open-minded as well!!
Excellent Reaction to a great tune! Thank you Asia and BJ! BJ - Lola was released in 1970!
Great reaction, you both could not stop smiling, still an hilarious song fifty two years later. I have the battered 45rpm single l brought back in l think 1970. Ray Davies who wrote and produced the song said it was inspired by an experience the Kinks manager Robert Wace had in a Paris night club. Lola was quite a common stage name used by 'Drag Queens' in 1960's London night clubs. Lola is also the name of my pet American bull dog and she is definitely a strong girl, we were watching your reaction together.....lol
When this song was released in 1970, it was played on the radio frequently. My younger sister hated this song whenever it came on, with a purple passion. She really didn't like what they were singing about......her name is Lola
The Kinks were part of the British Invasion of music/musical groups. Mid 60's for their start, this song was about 1970.
This is a Masterpiece 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟10/10
This song is one of my top 100 favorite songs, and has one of my most favorite double enterndres - "But I know what I am and I'm glad I'm a man. And so is Lola...." Hilarious! PS. I thought it was late 60s, but I looked it up and it was indeed 70, so good guess.