Let's not take this too far.
If I've already admitted that youth can be condescending toward old age, I should
perhaps acknowledge that middle-age can most certainly be condescending toward
youth. Daniel Finkelstein, writing in the Comment Central blog of the Times Online,
comments on the
ambiguity of the lyrics of many rock songs. He offers his list of the top
five most ambiguous pop song lyrics, and invites readers to contribute.
Topping Finkelstein's list is the classic Lola by
The Kinks. He writes:
"But I know what I am and I'm glad I'm a man and so is Lola" (The Kinks). As an astute Comment Central reader has noticed, Ray Davies isn't entirely clear here. Is Lola a man? Or simply glad that the song's narrator is a man?
Though on the surface this seems to be little more than grammatical nit-picking
by a writer who assumes that pop-lyricists can't sit down and write a coherent
sentence, it's sadly a glaring example of ignorance toward Rock. Numerous "expositions"
of Lola are available on the web, and all of them tell us very clearly that Ray
Davies was very purposefully ambiguous about Lola. To put things rather simply, that's the point
of the song.
Go to: Now why would I want to go and do that?, or
Go to: The shoebox advantage.