Who was Daisy?

TV Series

I have no interest in being someone’s muse, OK? I’m no muse. I’m somebody,” says a young Daisy Jones when she’s trying to break into the pop-rock world of the 1970s in Los Angeles. But who is this woman who exhibits such a strong and disruptive character and who has become a new television and also musical phenomenon? The intense Daisy is fictional, but the Prime Video series Daisy Jones and The Six has left many viewers wondering if she is a dramatisation of a real singer.

Daisy is actually the creation of a British author, Taylor Jenkins Reid, who in 2019 published the novel on which the series is based (and which was translated here as Todos quieren a Daisy Jones). Jenkins is passionate about the music of the 1970s, and she went through all the recordings and publications of that era to build a story that goes beyond rock and roll, sex and drugs, and is about loneliness, fidelity and human relationships.

The plot is inspired by the dynamics of the real-life pop group Fleetwood Mac, but Jenkins herself has explained that what really captivated her were the clashes that usually occur in bands between two strong frontmen (the inevitable example is John Lennon and Paul McCartney).

On this basis, and faithfully following the novel, Daisy Jones and The Six recreates the rise and fall of an American rock band, from the first performances at local festivals to becoming global stars and then suddenly disappearing from the scene. In this process we will see how the first members of The Six, led by the charismatic Billy Dune, succeed in the musical circuits of Pittsburgh and end up landing in Los Angeles. There they meet Daisy, which will end up catapulting them to fame. The series shows us two timelines: the growth of the group thanks to the creative explosion between Billy and Daisy, and the evaluation made by the different members 20 years later. The mystery that the viewer wants to see clarified is why, after their best attended concert, the group ended up disbanding.

The series has received very good reviews across the board, both for the production, which immerses you directly in the seventies, and for the work of the actors, who had to seem like a real band. The British actor Sam Claflin, who plays Billy Dune, not only perfectly disguises his accent, but sings the songs himself. It is the same for Riley Keough in her role as Daisy, although she may have had it a little easier, if only because of her genetics, since she is the granddaughter of Elvis Presley.

It is interesting that the fictional band’s huge musical success, the album Aurora – composed for the screen by a group of musicians including the singer of Mumford & Sons – has actually become a musical success, and one of the tracks, Let Me Down Easy, became number one on iTunes.