Daisy Jones and The Six

Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

Published by Hutchinson

March 2019

For a while, Daisy Jones & The Six were everywhere. Their albums were on every turntable, they sold out arenas from coast to coast, their sound defined an era. And then, on 12 July 1979, they split.

Nobody ever knew why. Until now.

They were lovers and friends and brothers and rivals. They couldn't believe their luck, until it ran out. This is their story of the early days and the wild nights, but everyone remembers the truth differently.

The only thing they all know for sure is that from the moment Daisy Jones walked barefoot onstage at the Whisky, their lives were irrevocably changed.

Making music is never just about the music. And sometimes it can be hard to tell where the sound stops and the feelings begin.

If Reese Witherspoon says she likes a book and picks it for her online book club then in my humble opinion it's usually pretty good and when I saw that Daisy Jones and The Six had been chosen as this month's choice (and a possible mini series) it seemed to be a good book to pick up next and I am so glad I did.  I can pretty much say right now that this is certainly going to end the year as one of my top reads, it's bloody brilliant. There is no point in trying to find clever superlatives here when that does the job.

The book is an interview with the band members of The Six, once famous throughout America in the 1970s and of a solo singer  called Daisy Jones whose talents were combined together to make a stunning album called Aurora.  The band were everything, they were everywhere, their connection to each other was out of this world and then suddenly they were no more.  No explanations were ever given, no interviews were made until now, in this book.

We are taken back to the formative days when the Dunne brothers formed a band that were eventually to become known as The Six.  Their lead singer Billy hit the big time hard: sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll were definitely his vibe despite a wife and baby on the way.  Daisy Jones was a girl who had everything and wanted for nothing and yet wasn't satisfied with life.  She too hits a path of drink and drugs, yet unlike Billy has found nothing to quit for.  Separately their individual music is good but when serendipity brings them together their music is formidable.

This book is about the band, the music but more importantly it is about the people who are part of the music.  Taylor Jenkins Reid focuses on Billy and Daisy, but spends just as much time building the characters of the rest of the band plus those loved ones whose lives are ultimately affected by everything that they do.  Many have said that they think the book is loosely based on Fleetwood Mac but I don't know about that.  What I will say is that I believed that Daisy Jones and The Six were real from the moment I finished the first page of the book until I read the very last word, and I am not the only one to say how sorry I am that the music defined through these pages does not exist in real life because I know without a doubt I would be playing those songs again and again and again.

Daisy Jones and The Six is about music, it's about passion, it's about following your dreams, it's about relationships, it's about loving someone and them not loving you back, it's about life, it's about death, it's about sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll.  It's about everything.

Happy Reading

Miss Chapters x