The Kinks Ready Huge ‘Lola Versus Powerman’ 50th-Anniversary Reissue

The Kinks will mark the 50th anniversary of their music industry-satirizing 1970 album Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround Part One with a massive reissue that pairs the remastered album with studio outtakes, demo recordings, BBC performances, and previously unreleased material. The Lola Versus Powerman reissue arrives on December 18th.

In addition to tracks that featured singer Ray Davies’ scathing view at the music industry at the time, the album also boasted the iconic quasi-title track “Lola,” the Kinks’ hit about an encounter with a transgender person. “The album is a celebration of artistic freedom (including my own) and the right for anyone to be gender-free if one wishes,” Davies said in a statement. “The secret is to be a good and trusting person and friend.”

The Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One 50th-anniversary reissue will be released in a variety of formats ranging from single-CD and LP- editions of the newly remastered album up to a limited edition “Deluxe Box Set” that includes the three CDs — the original album plus “singles (stereo and mono mixes), B-sides, alternate original mixes, new medleys with Ray and Dave Davies’ spoken word commentary, new Ray Davies remixes and original session outtakes, previously unreleased session and live tape audio, instrumental and acoustic versions, previously unreleased demos and BBC material — plus a pair of reproduced 7-inch singles from the era, “Lola”/”Berkeley Mews” and “Apeman”/”Rats.”

Among the new medleys is “The Follower/Anytime,” which the Kinks released as a teaser for the reissue.

The box set also comes with a 60-page hardback book with extensive notes, new band quotes, rare photos and memorabilia, as well as the Kinks “1970 Diary.” Additionally, fans who preorder the deluxe box set through the band’s webstore will receive an additional “Lola” 7-inch on clear vinyl as well as a metal pin featuring the Lola cover art.

The Lola reissue follows similar all-out 50th-anniversary reissues for the Kinks’ Village Green Preservation Society and Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire).