The Girl in the Song-Rosemary Davies

Ray Davies grew up in a house with six sisters, and his younger brother Dave. It was the second eldest sister that inspired the Kinks song, 'Rosy Won't You Please Come Home'.
Ray was very close to his two oldest sisters, who were like second mothers to him. Tragically Renee, the eldest, passed away when she was only thirty-one and Ray was thirteen. In 1964 his second sister, Rosie, emigrated to Australia with her husband, Arthur and their son, Terry. Ray was devastated by this second loss,
"I started screaming. A part of my family had left, possibly forever...I collapsed in a heap on the sandy beach and wept like a pathetic child"
His sisters emigration later inspired the album, Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire). Rosie passed away in 2014.

Musical Muses-Sue Sheehan

You're walking round in my memory

That only gets stronger and stronger

The inspiration behind some of The Kinks classic songs, including 'Susannah's Still Alive' was Dave Davies first love, Sue Sheehan.
Dave and Susan, who attended the local girls school, were teenage sweethearts. Unfortunately when Dave was fifteen and Sue sixteen they were discovered having an amorous encounter on Hamstead Heath (an incident that later inspired The Kinks album Schoolboys in Disgrace). Dave was expelled from school and some months later Sue discovered she was pregnant. The young couple planned to marry but their parents separated them, telling Dave, Sue no longer wished to see him and vice versa. It would be thirty years before Dave saw Sue again, or met his daughter Tracey.
The tragedy had a profound effect on Dave and much of his later wild behaviour was in an attempt to deal with losing his first love.
Sue inspired several of Dave's songs, 'Susannah's Still Alive', 'Funny Face', 'Mindless Child of Motherhood' and 'Fortis Green'.

Oh how can I live without her

The doctors won't let me see her

But I can catch a glimpse through the doorway

Of the girl that I love and care for