Daisy Jones and The Six Brings Fictional Rock Legends to Life
Film
Maybe you’ve heard of Daisy Jones? Or maybe The Six? If not, perhaps the name Taylor Jenkins Reid is familiar. She’s the best-selling fiction writer behind many Booktube and BookTok creator’s favorite reads, including Malibu Rising, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and Daisy Jones and The Six.
That last one is a triumph for a number of reasons, including that Amazon Prime Video will release its TV series adaptation this Friday, March 3. For those who aren’t familiar with the book, the story follows front-woman Daisy Jones as she falls into the path of The Six almost by chance. When she sings with their main lyricist and vocalist Billy Dunne, it leads to the ’70s L.A. rock band working on music that’ll become the stuff of legends.
The 333-page novel masterfully pulls together a fictional story of a band that exists only on those pages, one that churns out hits, tops the charts, navigates the life of being in a rock band and lives in the era of rock n’roll that those reading can only wish to be transported to. Sex, drugs, rock’n roll—Jenkins Reid hits it all.
The book, told through an oral history format of the band members looking back at their glory years, is cunning, sharp and hilarious. It leaves readers wanting nothing more than to dive into their streaming platform of choice and listen to Daisy Jones and The Six’s sole album, Aurora. Enamored readers have tried. When you type in “Is Daisy Jones…” into Google, a prompt automatically pops up: “Is Daisy Jones and The Six a real band?”
Starting Friday, they will be. With Riley Keough as our infamous Daisy and Sam Claflin as Billy alongside a string of other fantastic cast members, a fictional band will come to life for the first time in a while (Lemonade Mouth, anyone?).
The less glamorous part of this is the deal that Jenkins Reid made with Amazon Prime, the casting process, etc. But for readers everywhere: it’s not just that this book will be adapted — the question of whether that adaptation will be good remains in the air — it’s the fact that they can finally listen to the tracks of the famed album whose lyrics are printed in the final pages of the book.
The 11-track album Aurora will be available on Friday on streaming services from Ellemar Records. So far, “Look at Us Now (Honeycomb)” and “Regret Me” have been released as singles. The first, at six minutes long, has twinges of guitar solos that match the era (think of the one from “Go Your Own Way”), it’s a bonus track in the book, but seems to be a main track in the series. “Regret Me” was the first of the book’s songs to be created and released and is brought to life through the show’s trailer.
What’s remarkable about the book and its adaptation is that a band that captured so many readers, left them craving and wailing in the depths of Goodreads reviews about their inability to listen to the songs is finally giving them a chance to do that.
Granted, readers aren’t afraid to imagine on their own with fan casts and more. Jenkins Reid has also openly spoken about her inspiration and admiration of ’70s rock band Fleetwood Mac, particularly Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, and how Daisy and Billy in their own ways are representatives of that era of music and the tumultuous romance that plagued Fleetwood Mac. But, hey, it made for some damn good music.
In a Rolling Stone story, real-life album producer Blake Mills says that he recruited a slew of famous musicians (Phoebe Bridgers and Marcus Mumford among them) to help tackle the task of writing and bringing an album that, as the book implies, took over the ’70s.
Regardless of how the adaptation and album lands with audiences, it should be lauded that a fictional band with so much love is coming to life off the pages. For many, Daisy Jones and The Six seemed like an unattainable, beautiful work of fiction. This creation is a triumph for readers, for music fans and most of all for Taylor Jenkins Reid. It’s a reminder that creativity, when harnessed and fostered correctly, is a catalyst to help bring things to life. You might not have heard of Daisy Jones and The Six yet, but you’re about to.
Read reviews of films featuring Riley Keough:
Film Review: The Guilty
Film Review: The Devil All the Time