How To Play Lola by The Kinks

On this page I'd like to explain to you how to play Lola by The Kinks. Check out my acoustic demo clip and grab some free tabs in the lower right hand menu.

Lola was released as a single by The Kinks in 1970 and became a #1 hit in many countries but peaked at #2 in the UK and #9 in the USA. 10 years later a live version was released and it hit #1 once again in Belgium and The Netherlands.

The song was written by Kinks member Ray Davies, (who has been at this biz now for nearly 50 years) after he witnessed his manager hooked up with a transvestite at a house party.

The original words, which featured the words Coco-Cola, had to be changed to cherry cola because of radio policy promoting products back in the day.



The success of the single came at a good time as it gave the band some re-negotiating leverage wih their contract with RCA. The song can be found on the album "Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One". It's a great tune for the acoustic.



What you'll need for chords in this one are as follows ... C, D, E, A, Dbm, D and B7. There is one small bending riff on the B string in a few spots in the song but that's pretty much it. So it's pretty much a rhythm only song.

                 

Free Tab Available


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Full Tutorial - .wmv format - 9 min 31 sec

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You have the option of applying a few different rhythm patterns for this one. When it starts off, its two down strokes on C followed by a dn-up-dn-up and then on D and dn-up followed by the E chord.

During the first verse you can hit the root note of the chord and then mess with the 3 bottom stings in an E, B, G pattern that repeats.

After that one the 2nd verse kicks in, you can use a dn-dn-up-dn-up-dn-up-dn-dn-up-dn-up change chord and repeat pattern. But you can mix this up as well so don't feel like you're bound with this one pattern. Experiment a bit and see what feels most natural. When you hit the A, Dbm and B section the pattern changes.

Check out the classic video in the right hand menu and grab the free lyrics and tab as well.

I hope you found this How To Play Lola by The Kinks useful and informative.

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