The Kinks’ Dave Davies recently defended the band’s iconic song “Lola” after Moby called the song’s lyrics “gross and transphobic” in an interview with The Guardian.
In a new interview with The Telegraph, Dave says he was “shocked and really quite upset” when he heard about Moby’s comments, noting his first thought when he heard about them was “Who is Moby?”
And when he told his brother, bandmate and “Lola” songwriter Ray Davies about them, he had the same reaction, asking Dave, “Who the f*** is Moby?” Dave adds that Ray “wasn’t happy at all.”
Talking about the tune, which was released in 1970, Dave says when Ray first played it for him he thought it was “fun and beautiful.”
“It was about real people and real people’s antics. There is nothing nasty about it,” he says. “People were quite shocked by it. But we loved it, and the world seemed to love it too. No one mentioned the word transphobia then. I don’t think the word existed.”
Dave says of Moby’s comments, “I worried that it could turn people against us because it can feel like people are becoming weirder by the day.” He added, “They are always quick to judge and make assumptions about others. It is very rigid thinking. They don’t know that there is always a backstory. It can be dangerous to smear people.”
But Dave says he doesn’t hold anything against Moby.
“I don’t bear anyone malice. I think he made a clumsy mistake,” says Dave. “All music, all art, should be applauded. It’s not for me or for anyone else to decide what is right or wrong. We should be grateful that we live in a world where people are free to make music and say what they want to say.”
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