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Extended intro & verse riff for "Lola" by The Kinks

Lesson #165 • Jul 31, 2018

Video lesson

Editor’s notes

Lola, by The Kinks, is one of the many fantastic covers that lawyer-turned-guitarist Mike Massé covers on his excellent YouTube channel. After hearing his version so many times, I decided to work out what he is playing in the intro to the song. While this riff I came up with isn’t 100% what he plays, it’s still a super fun sequence to have fun with. So, I wanted to share! I hope you dig it.


My full tutorial for this song (Lesson #427)

I also have this separate lesson teaching you each part of this song (verse, chorus, bridge, and lead fill riff). View my full lesson notes or get the 4-page sheet music.


Mike Masse’s cover version

Here’s the cover that inspired my lesson:

The Kinks live version from 1980

In this version you can hear the extended acoustic intro that Mike Massé plays in his acoustic cover up above. They start playing in 1:06 of this video:

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