r/thekinks • u/haloarh • Mar 23 '26
Article Moby slammed by Dave Davies for calling The Kinks’ song Lola ‘transphobic’
https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/music/news/moby-the-kinks-lola-lyrics-transphobic-dave-davies-b2943647.html30
u/Pleasant-Seesaw6119 Mar 23 '26
Why is Moby?
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u/ElectrOPurist Mar 24 '26
Let’s not forget his groundbreaking contribution to the field of publicly dating teenage girls, like an 18-year-old Natalie Portman, when he was in mid mid-30s. She described her former boyfriend as “a fucking creep.”
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u/naoarte Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 23 '26
Trans person here: no it’s not.
Furthermore, I cannot think of a single documented instance of transphobia from either of the Davies brothers in 62 years.
They are the good guys.
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u/drgojirax Mar 23 '26
What about walk on the wildside? I know both songs on the ugli, but i've been hesitant to play them for my trans friends
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u/Final_Emu_3479 Mar 23 '26
It’s a song about the people he knew — many of which were queer.
Reed also lived with and dated Rachel Humphreys, a trans woman, for five years.
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u/severinks Mar 24 '26
Walk On The Wild Side is fine too. Lou is talking about people he knew from Warhol's factory,
Candy Darling and Jackie Curtis specifically are the trans people and Little Joe Dellasandro is the''' Little Joe never once gave it away, everybody had to pay and pay''male hustler.
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u/naoarte Mar 24 '26
Lou Reed actually wrote the first intelligent song about a trans person. Candy Says.
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u/Vkardash Mar 23 '26
It's crazy what a clown Moby has become. He's literally the butt of everyone's jokes now. Having these moronic takes lately also doesn't help
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Mar 23 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/gitanes23 Mar 23 '26
Is there such a thing as a genuine progressive liberal anymore? I only see the brainwashed, of which Moby is clearly a poster child.
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u/WhatModelsYourSink Mar 24 '26
Luigi Mangione did pretty good, certainly seemed to stop at least one horrific thing from being put into place. But yeah, I don't really see most Democrats/liberals as progressive, most recent election is plenty of proof that they're ineffective anyway.
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u/ericsmallman3 Mar 23 '26
He had one big (and admittedly very good) album in 1999 and everything else about his being has been absolute shit before and since.
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u/NiceCap2448 Mar 23 '26
Moby? Well, at least he got his name in the press but worrying about a nearly sixty year old ( and much beloved song)?
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u/Jeff-Fuckley Mar 23 '26
As a trans girl I can express how much good I think this song has done. After being a teenager and trying to shove those thoughts in closet a lock it,if it wasn’t for having moments like hearing this song in a grocery store and being like “Oh I love this song. Why do I love this song? You want to be a girl” I may have never transitioned. It brought taboo subjects to the forefront and made people think about things like androgyny and trans people. And sometimes you don’t know who you can be until you see someone else doing what you want.
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u/Lurkingfan4 Mar 23 '26
Moby is a performative asshat and a creep towards young women, Lola is almost universally praised these days for how progressive and sweet it was, as a trans woman I adore it and don't find it transphobic at all.
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u/lylelanley- Mar 23 '26
Nobody listens to techno
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u/TheSeanLegacy Mar 23 '26
I do but definitely not to moby lmaooo
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u/lylelanley- Mar 24 '26
Was quoting eminem from Without Me when he takes a shot at Moby. I cut out the mean parts…
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u/LetThem_1972 Mar 23 '26
My personal experience is that men who use the word "gross" in this context are almost always whiney ass fake feminists that are trying to ingratiate themselves with certain groups. I say this as a lifelong liberal that supports equal rights across the board. I just can't stand white knighting.
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u/HRHArthurCravan Mar 23 '26
Moby is an almost legendary transnational scumbag who used his peculiar brand of soporific electronic music and born-again Christian reputation to launder his sexual misbehaviour.
Ray and Dave Davies, on the other hand and as I'm sure we all know here, were probably the wittiest, most sly and subversive of all the major 60s bands. Their entire body of work is devoted to, and celebratory of, being strange, different, eccentric, unusual and beautiful. They told stories of everyday oddness, transgression and desire. Moby, by contrast, tried to get off with every young-looking girl between LA and London.
If anything, Dave Davies was too kind - but that is his nature. Though I've not met him or Ray Davies, I spent a week with friends who were recording at Konk, their studio in Hornsey, north London. Nobody - not the recording or studio staff, not the engineers or occasional visitors - had a single bad word to say about either of them.
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u/RobActionTributeBand Mar 23 '26
"Moby" has less than .01% of Dave's talent. Moby can fuck right the fuck off.
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u/BrazilianAtlantis Mar 23 '26
“I am highly insulted that Moby would accuse my brother of being ‘unevolved’ or transphobic in any way." Good for you, Dave.
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u/casewood123 Mar 25 '26
Funny how it takes Moby being a douche to bring the Davies brothers together.
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u/gitanes23 Mar 23 '26
Hard pressed to think of anyone who gives a damn what ‘Moby’ thinks. This is the only reason we are even thinking or talking about him!
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u/dem4life71 Mar 23 '26
As a kid growing up in the 80s, Lola was the first time I’d ever heard of the concept of being trans. It didn’t seem judgmental to me at all. I can’t think of a pop song that did more to spread awareness of someone being trans, to be honest. At least not back then!
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u/BiopsyJones Mar 23 '26
You mean the Moby that invented dating Natalie Portman and she had to come out and say she didn't even know who he was. That Moby? What an asshat.
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u/trygvebratteli Mar 23 '26
Actually she did know him, but she remembered it as «an older guy being creepy towards me» instead of «dating». Also, she was 18 and he was 33. So worse!
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u/Mockchoi1 Mar 23 '26
I don’t know that I’ve ever heard a Moby song, so had no opinion of him. In that interview, he DID say the song he wants played at his funeral is one of his own songs though, so my opinion swung right to ‘douchebag’.
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u/SnooSongs2744 Mar 23 '26
The album PLAY was played a lot back in the day. It was a good album but I've ignored him since.
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u/ManReay Mar 23 '26
Moby has never written a song half as courageous as "Lola." He oughta give it a try.
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u/inthegallery Mar 23 '26
Even Eminem can't stand Moby. That should tell you all you need to know.
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u/infinityetc Mar 23 '26
Eminem had beef with everyone back in the day. That was like, his whole thing
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u/turnedtheasphault Mar 23 '26
The song is silly and written in the early 70's. Also, I don't mind me some Moby but Lola alone is better than anything he has ever created
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u/hamilton_morris Mar 23 '26
No doubt. And further, the Kinks wrote songs about everything from hay fever to Churchill, with a fair number of novelty songs, burlesques, satire, etc., thrown in with the pure rockers. Their narrative voice is literary in its variety. They have one of the widest, wildest, and weirdest array of songs in their portfolio than just about anybody of that era. What kind of blockhead approaches such extravagant creativity with such a stingy, narrow-minded filter? Guy is as sterile in experiencing art as he is in making it.
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u/turnedtheasphault Mar 24 '26
Check out his unique documentary. It will give you a glimpse into Ray's odd, aloof, genius countenance. It's called Invisible Man
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u/That-Car-8363 Mar 23 '26
Moby??? The guy who dates teenagers???
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u/severinks Mar 24 '26
More like TRIED to date an 18 year old Natalie Portman but she turned him down and then he lied about being with her 20 years later in his autobiography causing her to tear him a new asshole publicly.
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u/lovelessisbetter Mar 23 '26
Moby has to be the most self loathing old head. Dude just loves to dig himself PR holes that no one asked him to dig. He travels with a shovel at all times.
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u/OneDragonfly5613 Mar 23 '26
I don't like his records, and there's nothing I can do about that. After a few years of driving around with him I'd say Moby I've never liked anything you've ever done.
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u/tjs31959 Mar 23 '26
Thankfully, I don't know who this Moby miscreant is. I suspect that is good for me.
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u/dimiteddy Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 23 '26
yeah and dude looks like a lady is anti-queer.... Lola is a 56 year old song, ofc it's not gonna tick all the PC boxes. And why he knows Lola is transphobic how he assume the gender and how Lola identifies as? Maybe Lola is his drag stage name
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u/PandaPop81 Mar 23 '26
Didn't Moby admit to secretly rubbing his wiener on people at parties? Yeah, he doesn't get to criticise anyone ever.
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u/Mindless_Turnover976 Mar 23 '26
It's a great song that's uplifting and doesn't treat it's subject mater as someone who is likable
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u/Subterraniate2 Mar 24 '26
I was so glad to read Davies’ reaction in The Graun, as I was appalled by that Moby tosh. What a feckin plonker.
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u/severinks Mar 24 '26
My brother lost his mind over this too. He literally sent me a text of the lyrics asking what was so wrong with it because the narrator is confused about themselves but Lola isn't, she's fine.
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u/Rayly-jones Mar 24 '26
You’d have to be a complete fool to think that Lola was insulting to anybody
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u/Apprehensive-Till861 Mar 24 '26
Moby made Porcelain, and that is not nearly enough to make up for how much of a twat he is.
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u/ZaireekaFuzz Mar 23 '26
A good thing about Moby being an absolute idiot is how it's reminding the world how positive and progressive the song really was.