Ray has said a lot of things over the years, including this.
Ray Davies has claimed that he was inspired to write “Lola” after Kinks manager Robert Wace spent a night in Paris dancing with a cross-dresser.[10] Davies said of the incident, “In his apartment, Robert had been dancing with this black woman, and he said, ‘I’m really onto a thing here.’ And it was okay until we left at six in the morning and then I said, ‘Have you seen the stubble?’ He said ‘Yeah’, but he was too pissed [intoxicated] to care, I think”.[11]
The claim that Lola was a blond is new to me. The above is the story that’s been around for decades. It’s always involved someone who was black.
But here’s the New York Times article (gift link) from Dec. 1, 2020.
Davies said it came from an encounter at a nightspot in Paris the group frequented called the Castille Club: “One of our crew at the time met this beautiful blonde and he took her back to the hotel. In the morning, he saw the stubble growing on her chin. So, he got a surprise!”
Almost exactly the same story, except that it doesn’t name Wace but does include Castille Club as the place.
As for the times, band member Mick Avory said this:
[Michael McGrath] used to invite me to all these drag queen acts and transsexual pubs. They were like secret clubs. And that’s where Ray [Davies] got the idea for ‘Lola’. When he was invited too, he wrote it while I was getting drunk.[9]
Lots of problems here. Avory seems to place the original in Britain, not France. France had long before legalized homosexuality although it was more tolerated than open. Britain finally legalized homosexuality in 1970 following a 1967 bill. Even before then many in the community found ways to gather together in what was a huge subculture with plenty of clubs and meeting places that the hip youngsters would get invitations to.
People in and around the Kinks probably spent time in those clubs in both countries. That Ray wrote the song at a club seems doubtful, no matter which version you choose. In Ray’s black version he saw the stubble as he was leaving; in the blond version he needed to wait until Wace had woken up to the truth the next morning and then tell the rest of the guys the tale.
Which is right? Unknown. Lola could have been either blond or black (somebody black with a blond wig or dyed hair is possible, but leaving that detail out of the story is not). My understanding has always been that a “dark brown” voice was code for somebody from Jamaica or a similar British West Indies island so I continue to lean toward black.
Avory also blurs the history by using both the terms drag queens (transvestites) and transsexuals; pinning Lola into one of these categories is impossible. The best that can be said is that the transsexual community in either Britain or France was probably not far over 100 in 1970, and that transvestites probably numbered at least two orders of magnitude more, so the odds greatly favor an experience with a transvestite. The closer you read Avory’s quote the less convincing it gets.
If somebody wants to dig into the subject, I’d believe 1970s reports over 50-year-old memories, even if the writer himself spoke the words. My experience in researching dozens of such examples leads me to doubt almost every specific that first appears long after the event.