from the kinks song - was Lola really a guy? i mean, is it a known fact or is it supposed to be ambiguous?

bort

np: nuggets

This is a key verse, the moment of realization:

I pushed her away.
I walked to the door.
I fell to the floor.
I got down on my knees
And I looked at her and she at me.

Damnit I though we had our first Barry Manilow post!

Yeah Spoon, either that or "I know what I am and I bet (?) I'm a man and so's Lola."

Ding.

np: Travis - "Driftwood"

the lyrics are

"I know what I am and i'm glad i'm a man, and so's Lola"

which are ambigious in meaning - is Lola also a man, or is Lola also glad the narrator is a man?.

although Lola's, ah, 'masculinity' is implied throughout the whole song pretty much.

Good point, splates. Here are some of the implications.

I asked her her name and in a dark brown voice she said lola
...
But when she squeezed me tight she nearly broke my spine
...
Well I’m not dumb but I can’t understand
Why she walked like a woman and talked like a man
...
She picked me up and sat me on her knee
...
Girls will be boys and boys will be girls
...

Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl.

I always thought it was obvious, but I can see now there's some ambiguity. "Destroyer" doesn't help a lot either:

Met a girl called Lola and I took her back to my place
Feelin' guilty, feelin' scared, hidden cameras everywhere
Stop! Hold on. Stay in control

Girl, I want you here with me
But I'm really not as cool as I'd like to be
'Cause there's a red, under my bed
And there's a little yellow man in my head
And there's a true blue inside of me
That keeps stoppin' me, touchin' ya, watchin' ya, lovin' ya

Paranoia, the destroyer.
Paranoia, the destroyer.

Well I fell asleep, then I woke feelin' kinda queer
Lola looked at me and said, "ooh you look so weird."
She said, "man, there's really something wrong with you.
One day you're gonna' self-destruct.
You're up, you're down, I can't work you out
You get a good thing goin' then you blow yourself out."

Oh, and besides being a showgirl, she was also a Swedish girl:

I was walking up Broadway you know
and there's this incredible looking Swedish girl having a
Cappuccino across the street from Lincoln Center, I started
talking to her you know - She said her name was Lola,
Her English wasn't too good you know - but we wound up spending
about 5 hours together just hanging out you know.
So We go back to my place - we get high - we get really into each other man.
It was love about to happen...I'm serious.
And then all of a sudden she gets up and she says, she says "Hey, I really gotta leave"
Damn