Electronic musician Moby is facing strong pushback from The Kinks‘ lead guitarist and co-founder Dave Davies after criticizing one of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame band’s signature hits. In a recent edition of its “Honest Playlist” series in which The Guardian asks musicians to talk about the songs that mean the most to them, Moby called the Kinks’ 1970s Billboard Hot 100 No. 9 hit a track he can no longer listen to.

“‘Lola’ by the Kinks came up on a Spotify playlist, and I thought the lyrics were gross and transphobic,” Moby told the paper about the song that tells the tale of a young man’s romantic encounter with a transgender woman or drag queen in a Soho nightclub. “I like their early music, but I was really taken aback at how unevolved the lyrics are,” Moby added.

Those comments did not sit well with Davies, who responded on Sunday (March 22) in an X post in which he wrote, “I don’t wanna show the guy up, but Moby should be careful what he says. the cockettes And their friends used to follow us around on tour. We appreciated them,” the guitarist said in reference to the gender-bending 1970s psychedelic hippie troupe. “Why is Moby being so rude about this simple song? We’re not trans phobic. Why does he have to have a go at us?”

In addition, Davies posted a letter he said was sent to himself and his brother, Kinks singer Ray Davies, from their good friend and pioneering transgender punk icon Jayne “Wayne” County, who wrote about what “Lola” meant to her back in the day.

“Of course, when I first heard the name Lola, it conjured up memories of Marlena Dietrich standing on a stage in a crowded, smokey room singing one of her most famous songs, ‘Lola!’ From the 1930 film The Blue Angel,” County wrote. ” ‘I am the naughty Lola all the men know me!’ I always thought that the young lady in the song by The Kinks, had perhaps taken her name from the Dietrich character! And actrashy, dark bar in London’s Soho district would for sure have an ‘ interesting’ array of nighttime denizens! And a woman with a low voice and the name Lola, would certainly qualify for a possible encounter with either a transvestite or transsexual!”

County added that when she first heard the song she was both “thrilled and amazed” that the Kinks would record a song about a trans person and wondered if anyone else had clocked what the song was about. “Who was cool or hip enough to realize what ‪The Kinks‬ we’re singing about!” County said. “‘Lola’ will always be one of those songs that for me ‘broke the ice’ so 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 singing a song about a ‘girl’ named Lola!”

While County said that, unlike some fans, radio stations may not have picked up on the nuance of the song’s lyrics, she definitely got the message and it influenced her songwriting. In fact, County’s 1979 anthem “Wonder Woman” references “Lola” in the lyrics on the line “Lola with a passion mark kiss.”

The original song, written by Ray Davies, describes the encounter between the young man and Lola, with Davies singing, “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-Lola/ Well, I’m not dumb, but I can’t understand / Why she walked like a woman and talked like a man.” The track, one of the first mainstream rock songs to center a trans character without judgment, continues, “Girls will be boys and boys will be girls/ It’s a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world/ Except for Lola.”

“‘Lola’ will always be a very special song to me!,” County said of the track that remains one of the Kinks’ most beloved hits. “With this song, The Kinks projected themselves into the modern world. The REAL world! A world full of all kinds of people! Bisexual, Gay, Trans, not just a world full of straight heterosexuals! ‘Lola’ broke down the doors of narrow mindedness and I will always be grateful and happy that The Kinks gave me this incredible song with such a great story! Being Trans myself this will always be a very special song for me.”

At press time a spokesperson for Moby had not returned Billboard‘s request for comment on Davies’ reaction.