Aurora you’re the one… The album that charted a fictional band. Graphic by: Liz Fusco | News Editor
Here’s your warning now — If you haven’t seen the Amazon Prime “Daisy Jones and the Six” adaptation and you don’t want to be spoiled, turn away.
“Daisy Jones and the Six” is a story about love triangles, women’s rights (and their wrongs) and soulmates — but it is also a story about music, and we cannot properly analyze the show before we analyze the music.
So analyze, we shall.
In the book, the album “Aurora,” consists of 10 tracks. In order, they are “Chasing the Night,” “This Could Get Ugly,” “Impossible Woman,” “Turn it Off,” “Please,” “Young Stars,” “Regret Me,” “Midnights,” “A Hope Like You” and “Aurora.”
However, the “Aurora” album that came out of the TV show consisted of 11 tracks. In order, they are “Aurora,” “Let Me Down Easy,” “Kill You To Try,” “Two Against Three,” “Look at Us Now (Honeycomb),” “Regret Me,” “You Were Gone,” “More Fun to Miss,” “Please,” “The River” and “No Words.”
According to Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of “Daisy Jones and the Six,” making a book into a TV show is not about whether or not changes will be made, but rather will the changes that are bound to be made true to the overall message of the story? And overall, I think these changes are.
While I, like many fans of “Daisy Jones and the Six” was upset at first about the lack of some of my favorite songs on the real album, after rereading the lyrics included in the back of the novel, it was clear to me that none of the songs written by Taylor Jenkins Reid could be turned into real songs.
I do feel like the overall album that came from the show really does hold true to the message of the novel, but in case you don’t trust me, let’s break down the album to test my theory.
Track one: “Aurora.”
The album opens with the title track, and the irony is not lost on me that this song is about Billy’s wife, Camila, and how she helped him recover from addiction.
Billy sings, “Aurora, I am here/ I won’t disappear again./ How soon can you come?/ You’re my morning sun.”
The fact that Daisy is harmonizing on this song, singing almost every word Billy foreshadows the looming cloud she is on Billy and Camila’s marriage.
Track two: “Let Me Down Easy.”
In the show, “Let Me Down Easy” is the first song that Billy and Daisy write together. According to Billy, the song is about hope for the future. According to Daisy, the song is about why people do things that are bad for them.
In reality, the song describes a relationship that seems so perfect, they know it can’t last, so they’re asking to be let down before they’re too invested.
This is very applicable to Daisy and Billy’s relationship, as they constantly describe themselves as two halves of a whole who can be too similar at times which can lead to them hurting each other (like dishing out their worst secrets to Rolling Stone Magazine — see: “talent like Daisy’s is wasted on people like Daisy.”).
Track three: “Kill You To Try.”
Upon first listen, “Kill You To Try” is a song from Billy to both Camila and Daisy and the love triangle he’s found himself in.
He sings to Camila at first, saying “I’ve been an angel all summer long/ I swear I’ve done nothing wrong/ I want all of your tears to be gone/ come along.” Here, he is saying that he has come back from his old, irresponsible ways, and isn’t going to abandon her or their family again.
However, right after this, Billy sings about Daisy, and how she tempts him to do all the things he shouldn’t when he sings, “Cape Cod, Santa Fe,/ A little houseboat in Marina del Rey/ So close to get and so far away/ come along.”
After a few listens, we can understand that this is actually not a song to Camila or Daisy, but rather a song about Billy’s constant internal struggle with himself. He is completely morally gray, both the worst enemy in his story and the hero, and Daisy proves this to him when she calls him out in the song for constantly being hung up on what he can’t have, rather than being grateful for what he does.
A little Easter Egg in this song is that the melody is played on a xylophone, and in the show it’s revealed that it is played by the band’s producer, Teddy. This is symbolic of the mentor and father figure role Teddy has become to Billy.
Track four: “Two Against Three.”
If this was real life, there is no way this song could possibly be about Billy, because Daisy wrote it on her own before she knew any of The Six or Teddy. Luckily, this is not real life.
“Two Against Three” is a song where Daisy is realizing she is falling in love with Billy, but feels as though she is betraying Camila.
The title “Two Against Three” represents Billy, Camila and their daughter, Julia, against the possible future Daisy and Billy could have together.
Track five: “Look at Us Now (Honeycomb).”
Though nothing like the “Honeycomb” in the book lyrically, “Honeycomb” stays true to its importance to the story overall in the show.
The song is about finding out who you are, which relates to the band reidentifying themselves after Billy comes out of rehab and Daisy becomes the sixth member, but also during the Chicago show when Daisy sings “Honeycomb” for the last time on stage, knowing that the band is breaking up. In other words, they’ve made a good thing bad, which they say many times in the song.
A fun little secret about this song is that before the bridge, the lead guitar mimics the same guitar solo in Fleetwood Mac’s iconic song, “The Chain.”
Track six: “Regret Me.”
Another song that is from the book, however completely different lyrically,“Regret Me” is probably the most notorious and anticipated song among fans. This is a song that Daisy wrote for Billy, calling him out for leading her on. The reason this song is so popular is for the one line “and baby when you think of me, I hope it ruins rock and roll.”
I was sad that this line was not in the official song but I’ve come to terms with it because I think that the song that was released is a lot stronger lyrically than the song that appears in the book.
While this iconic line is missing, Daisy still gets to sing the line “Go ahead and regret me but I’m beating you to it, dude” to Billy, and that’s pretty powerful in my opinion.
Track seven: “You Were Gone.”
Underrated track alert! “You Were Gone” is a heartbreaking bop and one of my favorites off the album.
If you read the book, you may remember a brief chapter about halfway through where Graham mentions he wrote a song about Karen called “The Canyon.” He wanted it to go on the “Aurora” album, but Billy vetoed it (classic Billy).
I seriously believe this song is equivalent to “The Canyon.” The lyrics perfectly describe Graham and Karen’s dynamic. It states, “A tree carving of our names left high and alone./ Nothing ever seems to stay that way, nothing too long./ Where were you when I needed you? You were gone./ When I needed you you were gone.”
Track eight: “More Fun to Miss.”
“More Fun to Miss” is the equivalent to “Impossible Woman.” It’s a song written about Daisy by Billy. In the original song, the lyrics are “dancing barefoot in the snow/ cold can’t touch her, high or low.” However, in the show, the song’s lyrics include “More fun to miss/ than to be with/ more fun to kiss/ than to be with.” and honestly, as much as I love the original lyrics, I think the ones from “More Fun to Miss” might be more powerful. Everytime this song comes up on my Spotify shuffle I can hear the disappointment in Daisy’s voice when she reads these lyrics, before telling Billy she won’t sing it.
Track nine: “Please.”
“Please” is another song from the book, however, I think that the song from the show is significantly better than the one in the book.
The song’s main beat is stressful and urgent and even a little bit messy, just like the song’s message.The song characterizes Billy and his inability to take responsibility for anything, as he is begging Daisy to let him go back to loving his wife. In the first line he sings, “Please/ I’m down on my knees,/ I have a family…Please,/ I’m the worst at these/ I need you to say no/ Please.”
If all of this isn’t enough to convince you that Billy is in love with another woman, consider the fact that he told Camila he didn’t write this song when she confronted him about the lyrics. He did, in fact, write the song.
Track 10: “The River.”
The River is one of my favorite tracks off the album. It holds true to the sound of classic 70’s rock and rebirths it into the 21st century. When the sound of the amp turning on and the screeching guitar chord sounds in the beginning, I could go into a frenzy.
It’s another one from Daisy to Billy about him leading her on. She describes his reflection in the river giving her affection, but it all being an illusion he couldn’t really promise to her.
Track 11: “No Words.”
In my opinion, “No Words” doesn’t fit on the album well, and a lot of times, it’s a skip for me. When I first heard it, I honestly wished they would have just ended the album with “The River” and kept the album to ten tracks like in the book.
This song is about Camila from Billy. In the book, he wrote the song “Senora” to win her over and “Aurora” to apologize to her for his addiction. “No Words” is Billy realizing that to save their marriage he can’t just write a song, he has to use his actions.
While these are all of the songs on the album “Aurora,” there are still a lot of other great songs that were written for the show that aren’t on “Aurora,” like Daisy’s song “By Myself,” and the catalyst song for her career, “Stumbled on Sublime,” which in the book is called “Tiny Love.”
In addition, many classic 70s hits are featured in the show, such as “House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals, “I Feel the Earth Move” by Carol King and most importantly, “Gold Dust Woman” by Fleetwood Mac.
While it sustained some pretty major changes from in the book, “Aurora” is an amazing album. I don’t think songs could have been written to be more applicable to the story line, and I also appreciate that I feel like I’m listening to an authentic 1970’s rock album when I put it on.
Come back next week for part two of the review of “Daisy Jones and the Six.”