Introduction

The novel Daisy Jones and The Six came out on March 5, 2019 and was written by Taylor Jenkins Reid. The show premiered on March 3, 2023 with ten episodes. They both follow the story of a fictional band named The Six, led by Billy Dunne and an up-and-coming artist, Daisy Jones. Together, they make a song that blows up, resulting in them begrudgingly making an album together. The band ends up going on tour for that album, and everything all suddenly ends after a show in Chicago.

The Book

I loved reading Daisy Jones and The Six. It was such a fun read that I never wanted to put it down- I finished reading it in three days. I loved the style of the writing. The story was told through interviews of each of the different band members. This allowed different perspectives on events and a deeper understanding and insight into the band members. The book really shined through its interactions between Daisy and Billy. One of them would describe something that they did and believe that it was reasonable, the other characters would have hated it and didn’t see it as reasonable at all. This format allowed them to describe how they felt at the time and what was happening. It also allowed the readers to explore the different character dynamics and relationships through each individual perspective.

The Show

I loved watching the TV adaptation of Daisy Jones and The Six. The show was fun to watch and for the most part, it was very true to the book. The book is told through interviews of all the different band members. The show, on the other hand, demonstrates this in a very creative format. While it’s clear the story is told through interviews, with lots of interview clips at very important points scattered throughout the show, it still feels like a third-person show for maximum engagement. Getting to hear a bunch of the songs as they were in the process of making them was really fun, along with hearing the full songs when they were finished and performed. The casting choices for everyone were all amazing, they all looked really close to how I imagined what they’d look like, especially Daisy and Warren. 

The Songs

In the book, the songs were shown as they were in the process of writing them and at the end of the novel, there was a section with all of the lyrics for each of the songs. When I read the songs, they didn’t really make a lot of sense and were confusing. When it came to the show, the songs were altered. They sounded great and made a lot more sense to me. The songs were changed a lot but overall, I really liked that they were altered. The show also added more songs, such as “The River”, which I also ended up liking.

Book Vs. Show

While the show does stay loyal to the book most of the time, there are some changes that were noticeable. There were some that felt necessary, and others that took out important parts of the story. Here are my thoughts on the changes:

Billy and Daisy’s Drug Problem:

In the book, Daisy was always on some type of drug. On The Six’s first tour, so was Billy. It was constantly brought up what they were taking and how it affected them. It made Daisy constantly late to recording sessions, sometimes not showing up at all, and just overall unreliable. Billy could barely function and was a mess during the first tour. In the show, the drug and alcohol use is heavily toned down. Daisy can be seen drinking a lot and taking a lot of different drugs, but it rarely ever affected her or her performance. It only ever seems to affect her in the last few episodes when she is spiraling or after her fight with Billy. For Billy, his drug and alcohol problem is barely ever shown after the first tour and his time in rehab. The show mainly focuses on the aftermath of Billy’s rehab and his feeling tempted and uncomfortable around substances, trying to avoid situations where those things would be.

Eddie’s Character:

In the book, Eddie was insufferable. Whenever he was being interviewed in the novel, he just complained about everything, specifically Billy, and it got really repetitive and annoying. When it was just the six of them, before Daisy joined, he didn’t like how little he felt he was being utilized. Once Daisy joined, Eddie thought she was going to change their genre of music away from rock, and he made sexist comments about her. He was only ever happy when things didn’t go Billy’s way. He had so much resentment towards Billy, that even 20 years later, it had turned him into a bitter person. In the show, this was changed. Eddie is still bitter, but he expresses himself better instead of just criticizing everything. His resentment is also now fully focused on Billy in the show, instead of transferring over to Daisy too. In the show, Eddie has more fun with being in the band and he is actually enjoying himself. 

Billy’s Possessiveness:

In the book, Billy is very controlling over the band. He writes all the songs and won’t take any suggestions, he decides all of the instrumental parts for everyone to play, sometimes even redoing their parts for the recordings without telling the other members, and he insists on always being the center of attention. He gets upset and defensive when the band doesn’t want to have an entire album of apology songs to his wife, Camila, who he cheated on during the first tour. When Daisy joins the band, Billy’s controlling tendencies get worse since Daisy changes a song that he wrote and she begins to bring in her own songs that she wrote. The two have to work together to write songs and it just makes him angry since he’s being questioned and pushed back against by Daisy, something he hadn’t dealt with before. In the TV adaptation, this controlling part of Billy isn’t shown as much. Eventually, he starts enjoying writing songs with Daisy and he releases full control to the band to do whatever they feel is best for their own roles. 

The Sixth Member:

In the show, The Six consisted of Billy, Eddie, Graham, Karen, Eddie, and Pete. Before Karen and Pete had joined, there was another member named Chuck. In the book, Chuck was drafted for the Vietnam War and eventually, he died. When he was first drafted, he was replaced in the band by Pete, who is Eddie’s brother. In the show, Pete doesn’t even exist and Chuck instead leaves the band on his own account to go to college to study dentistry. 

I liked Pete’s character in the book since he was the most down to earth one in the band. He had a girlfriend named Jenny very early on. While everyone else was out partying after shows, Pete was on the phone with her. He also only spoke at the end since he enjoyed his time in the band and didn’t want to speak poorly of anyone. Whenever he appeared it was from other members mentioning him, usually being Eddie. It made sense that Pete wasn’t in the show due to how little he is in the novel, to the point where it was easy to forget his name. Instead of Pete, the sixth member in the show is Camila as she was around the band more and took pictures at their shows. It gave Camila a more integral part in everything for the purposes of the show. It only felt a bit odd when they were referred to as The Six, but there were only 5 people on stage.

Conclusion

I loved reading the book and watching the show for Daisy Jones and The Six. Overall, I preferred the book to the show. The style of the book being individual interviews made it captivating to read. It also included so much more information that could never all fit in a show. I did like the show, especially for the songs, but it just couldn’t match up to the book.

Work Cited

Reid, J. T. (2019). Daisy Jones and The Six. Ballantine Books

Stewart, N. (Executive Producer). (2023-2023). Daisy Jones and The Six [TV Series]. Amazon Prime Video.

Wickes, H. (2023, March 1). “daisy jones & the six”: Can they sing, play their instruments? Life & Style. https://www.lifeandstylemag.com/posts/daisy-jones-the-six-can-they-sing-play-their-instruments/