The Lola Complex

A year ago I had posted a piece on the song “Talk of all the USA” by the 70’s band Middle of the Road that deals with a relationship between a man and a transsexual women. I had been very surprised to find pop musicians of the early 70’s singing so openly about getting in touch with women of the second kind (สาวประเภทสอง Saao Prapeth Song , a nice thai expression for us that I can mention often enough :-) let alone a relationship
In a comment on that post our appreciated reader Boonsong pointed to the very famous 60’s classic rock song by The Kinks – Lola.

The Lola lyrics:

I met her in a club down in old Soho
Where you drink champagne and it tastes like coca cola c.o.l.a. cola
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. Lola

Well, I'm not the world's most physical guy,
But when she squeezed me tight she nearly broke my spine
oh my Lola, la-la la-la Lola
Well, I'm not dumb, but I can't understand
Why she walked like a woman and talked like a man

Well we drank champagne and danced all night
under electric candlelight
She picked me up and sat me on her knees
said good boy, won't you come home with me ?
Well, I'm not the world's most passionate guy,
But when I looked in her eyes, well, I almost fell for my Lola

I pushed her away
I walked to the door
I felt to the floor,
I got down on my knees
well I looked at her and she at me.
That's the way, that I want it to stay
And I always wanted it to be that way for my Lola
la-la la-la Lola,
Girls will be boys and boys will be girls,
It's a mixed up, mouled up, shook up world except for Lola

Well, I left home just a week before
and I'd never ever kissed a woman before
But Lola's mine and took me by the hand
Said good boy gonna make you a man !"
Well, I'm not the world's most mascular man,
But I know what I am I'm glad I'm a man and so is Lola

Of course everybody has listened to this song a thousand times but most of us have probably never recognized that it deals with a flirt (or even more) with a transgender woman. Even on Wikipedia there is a section on how it came to that song although the story behind it is rather less romantic.

Thinking about those two songs one can be sure, that there is probably a lot of music out there dealing with that topic – but maybe not as obvious.
Now, I am wondering if there had ever been a meaning to those songs and if at all, what the conclusion might be, since, they all refer to their encounters as men. Maybe in those days it had been simply a two sex world (an antique point of view as we know today).

Still, the Lola complex seems to be still inspiring. Israeli pop singer Dana International - certainly one of the world’s most famous transsexuals – who had won the Eurovision Song Contest with her song “Diva” in 1998 had published a song called “Lola” already in 2005. Watching the video to this song, one will find out almost instantly that Dana picked up the Kink’s Lola complex and played with it:



Dana International – Lola

Maybe in a couple of years there will pop up another piece of music dealing with the Lola Complex and maybe even hint at it’s ancestor from more than 50 years ago.
In Thailand Trans-music is almost a style of music of its own even with different styles. Not only that it has become a fashion to have all-Katoey bands but it appears to sell pretty well, too.
As this is a huge topic I decided to dedicate some post to it.
So the next post will be on the transgender music scene in Thailand and Korea.