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Song Stories

“Lola”

The Kinks | 1970

The forceful opening guitar chords and rousing "Lo-lo-lo-lo Lola" chorus gave the Kinks a Top 10 hit, but even in 1970 listeners could figure out that the "Lola" who so transfixed singer-songwriter Ray Davies was a transvestite. A passing reference to Coca-Cola in the lyrics would have prohibited the song from gaining BBC airplay, forcing Davies to fly to London in the middle of a U.S. tour to rerecord the phrase in a new version as "cherry cola." "The song is actually meant to show that things aren't always what they seem," Davies owned up.

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“Satellite”
The Kills | 2011
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“Andrew in Drag”
The Magnetic Fields | 2012

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Song Stories

“Everyday People”

Sly and the Family Stone | 1968

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.

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