Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid ~ The Story of a 70s Rock Band #ContemporaryFiction @tjenkinsreid

Author: Taylor Jenkins Reid

Performed by a Full Cast of Twenty One

Released: March 2019 by Random House Audiobooks

Category: Contemporary Fiction, Romance, Audiobook, Book Review

EVERYONE KNOWS DAISY JONES AND THE SIX.

They sold out arenas from coast to coast.

Their music defined an era and every girl in America idolised Daisy.

But on July 12 1979, on the night of the final concert of the Aurora tour, they split. Nobody ever knew why. Until now.

This was something completely different for me. Daisy Jones & The Six features a fictional (although completely believable) 70s rock band, from the inception through to the split.

The narrative is presented in interview format which was a choice that could have fallen flat but only added to the realism. The (fictional) author is putting together a book about the band from the compiled oral history. All the band members plus various others recount their thoughts and feelings about the events that shaped the band and their music—the rumours, speculations, addictions, conflicts and relationships, each with their own interpretations. This does mean there’s some repetition, albeit with a different slant.

The Dunne brothers, with Billy the lead singer, and Graham playing lead guitar, morphed into The Six in the late sixties as the band grew to include four more members. The bookings increased. Billy wrote killer songs and they never looked back.

Rod Reyes (manager, The Six): Billy Dunne was a rock star. You could just see it. He was very cocksure, knew who to play to in the crowd. There was an emotion that he brought to his stuff.

Daisy Jones was born in Los Angeles to rich parents who hardly acknowledged her existence. It was a lonely childhood. By the time she was in her teens she was a well known part of the nightclub scene on Sunset Strip and it wasn’t long before she fell into the trap of pills and alcohol. She was gorgeous, had a great voice and wanted to write her own songs. She was also damaged, selfish, lost. 

Daisy: I signed the deal with Runner Records. But I didn’t read the contract. I didn’t want to read contracts and pay attention to who I was supposed to pay what money to and what was expected of me. I wanted to write songs and get high.

When The Six became Daisy Jones & The Six their fame reached its pinnacle. They filled stadiums and arenas, but how long could they ride that wave before crashing back down to earth…

Had I been reading this it possibly wouldn’t have had the same impact. Listening was the better choice for me, the full cast of narrators were excellent. The characters, their relationships and interactions were fascinating, frustrating and sometimes predictable but captured that period in time perfectly. The individual stories had the feel of sincerity and frankness, even though personal perspectives on the truth more often than not differed, and encompassed among other things deep and sometimes damaging emotions, love, disputes, music, substance abuse and friendship. 

Even with the audio I didn’t think I’d enjoy this as much as I did. The more I listened, the more I became invested in the complex, vulnerable characters created by Taylor Jenkins Reid, the dynamics, dramas and the outcome of the band’s breakup. It’s sad, perceptive, evocative, written and performed exceptionally well. It all felt so real, even down to a selection of song lyrics from the Aurora tour. I especially loved the twist at the end.

Book links ~ Amazon UK | Amazon US  

About the Author

Taylor Jenkins Reid lives in Los Angeles and is the author of The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo as well as One True Loves, Maybe in Another Life, and more. Her novels have been named best books of summer by People, US Weekly, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, InStyle, PopSugar, BuzzFeed, Goodreads, and others.

Author links ~ Website | Twitter | Facebook