Because the first three episodes of the TV adaptation of “Daisy Jones and The Six” came out on Mar. 3, I figured this month would be the best time to review the original book by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Though it might be odd to release the show in multi-episode chunks, these first three episodes set up the show perfectly and give the background of all the characters before it dives right into the main attraction of the book: Daisy Jones and The Six’s 1978-1979 tour .
“Daisy Jones and the Six” is a Fleetwood Mac/1970s inspired realistic-fiction story which mainly focuses on wannabe singer Daisy Jones and the lead singer for The Six, Billy Dunne. The Six is a band created by Dunne and his brother Graham. It starts by introducing Daisy when she was a child and goes on to show how she eventually got into the music scene because of that childhood. It then switches perspectives to Billy and Graham Dunne, who decide to start a band together and try to find other members. After The Six start to get noticed more, Daisy and The Six cross paths when they’re told to write a song together, which instantly becomes a hit single.
Because of the popularity of their first song together, the record label tells Billy to let Daisy join the band. However, Billy has been proven to be very controlling about his band, who is in it, and how they play. But no one can deny how great Billy and Daisy’s voices go together, and in the long run a record together would make them the biggest band in the world. Billy shoves down his ego—with great difficulty—and lets Daisy join the band. They then start writing their album “Aurora,” which became one of the most popular albums in the world in the late seventies. When Daisy Jones and The Six go on tour, everything starts to unravel, which leads to the band’s infamous breakup after their last show for “Aurora” in 1979.
One of the biggest things that makes this book so interesting is the writing style. Taylor Jenkins Reid is my favorite author, so in my eyes, she can write nothing bad. But with this book, Reid really knocked it out of the park. It’s set in an interview style, with each character speaking on their own memories and how they remember each moment of the band’s career. What makes this so interesting and fun is that the characters all remember everything differently, whether it be how the band broke up or who rode in each bus everyday during tour. This brings an additional aspect to the story that makes the story even better and a hundred times funnier, but also brings up even more questions because you never know who might be lying.
This book first came out in 2019 and was almost immediately picked up for a show by Reese Witherspoon and her company, Hello Sunshine. Hello Sunshine has produced a number of films and shows, including “Where the Crawdads Sing,” “Legally Blonde 3,” “Lucy in the Sky,” and now “Daisy Jones and the Six.” They started casting in 2020, and the actors began practicing and learning their instruments. With COVID-19 hitting, they didn’t start filming as soon as they could’ve, but it also gave the actors more time to get even better at the roles. The casting director did an amazing job in my opinion because all of the characters fit in perfectly with how I imagined the characters, especially with Riley Keough playing Daisy Jones.
This all makes me enjoy the show even more because of all the work the actors had to go through to play the instruments the characters play. Not to mention, Sam Claflin (who plays Billy Dunne) also had to learn to sing alongside learning how to play guitar. All of this work was worth it though because as of Mar. 3 of this year, the whole album of “Aurora” came out in real life. In the back of the book, all the lyrics for all the songs of “Aurora” were showcased.
However, some of the lyrics of the songs changed and some of the original songs were completely scrapped. Some might be upset about that fact, but I’ll be the first one to say that Reid’s writing skills do not apply very well to songwriting. Because the show got musical artists like Phoebe Bridgers, Marcus Mumford, and Madison Cunningham, the album is great instead of just okay.
The songs “Regret Me” and “Look At Us Now (Honeycomb)” came out early and were both original songs from the book, with Honeycomb being the monumental song that rocked the world in 1977. As soon as the rest of the album was released on Mar. 3, I listened right away and was instantly blown away. I was as skeptical as the next person when “Aurora” was released, because in the book this album was advertised as the most popular album in the world during the late seventies, which set my expectations high.
As soon as I started listening, I instantly knew which ones were my favorite. Of course, “Aurora” is one of the best ones, probably ranked at number three for me. It’s very different from how I imagined it in the book, but I’m not unhappy about that. Then comes “Please,” which absolutely knocked me out of the park. The first time I listened to it, my jaw was dropped the entire time. The beat is super strong, and don’t even get me started on the lyrics. It’s such a complex song, probably one of the most intense on the whole album.
But my all time favorite has to be “Let Me Down Easy.” Both Claflin and Keough have amazing vocals in the song, making it that much more catchy. This will definitely be in my top 5 listened-to songs for the year, without a doubt.
All in all, I rated the “Daisy Jones and the Six” book, show, and album 5/5 because of the writing style, the similarities between the book and the show, and how amazing the album “Aurora” is.