"Daisy Jones & the Six" upcoming Prime Series about a fictional Fleetwood Mac-like band (03/03/2023)

I never heard it until Wes Anderson used it in Rushmore. However, I'm American, and The Faces only had one national hit here, "Stay With Me" (Rod's solo career was far more successful in the States).

 

It was a trainwreck of bad ideas. The worst of all was the sense of doom and darkness they applied to an era of music (1973-74) that was anything but that. They also had these weird little fantasy vignettes of artists like Buddy Holly and Bobby "Blue" Bland doing one of their hits ... in a series that purported to be about the music scene 15 years later? Confused, at best. They seemed to make the creative intent of the show to mirror that of a severely jaded music critic who hated most rock music of the time (there were plenty who looked down on 70s rock from the perch of their 60s revolution/youth culture that was long in the tooth by then, but also in control of print media) and graft that onto a music executive (played like one of The Three Stooges on coke by Bobby Cannavale) who was spouting hateful gibberish about prog rock and boy bands like The Osmonds ... while musical acts like this made his company multi-million dollar fortunes and able to take chances on influential but commercial failures like the New York Dolls.

I can at least understand an endeavor like Daisy Jones & the Six not getting it right simply because people who weren't there read a novel they loved and tried to recreate what they could with limited resources and no personal experience. Vinyl was created by people who were there, right there, and all we got was turgid, leftover Sopranos crossed with a particularly stilted and bad cultural read that felt like a dashed-off, disgruntled Rolling Stone review by the likes of Jon Landau or Dave Marsh bemoaning the then-current state of rock. In 1974, we were all waiting to be saved by punk! B*llsh*t! Those guys hated punk, too, when it finally came around!

 

My sense is they get some of this right and some of it wrong in terms of period detail. I guess there must be some kind of enjoyment attached to forensically picking over it and picking it apart, but I am glad I can accept it, overlook its flaws, and enjoy what is good about it, mostly the concert sequences, and Riley Keough's performance. The drummer is an absolute hoot too.

 

And what was funny about Vinyl is that in the last episode, one of the struggling record label execs finds a new act with a new style, and he wants to sign them up because he just knows it's gonna save the company. And it's a disco artist...



I've said for years this is the best fake 1970s disco song I've ever heard. It literally could have been a big hit in 1974, for sure. I wasn't a disco fan at all in the '70s, but this is a damned good, extremely catchy song; Nile Rogers' contributions helped a lot.

During color & post sessions, if I'm brave enough to bring up an anachronistic element, usually the producer will invariably shoot me down with one of three things:

1) "nobody will ever notice that"
2) "only a crazy nerd like you will care about something that obscure"
3) "if our audience is nit-picking this much, we've already lost them because they're not immersed in the story."

That was essentially the conversation I had with the producers of The Path to 9/11, when I pointed out a giant billboard advertising the Apple iPod... which had not yet been released on September 11, 2001. It came out more than a month later, on October 23rd, and it was very, very top-secret prior to that. The producer rolled his eyes and said, "who cares? Our audience will be more into the story of the terrorists and the emotional tragedy of the 3000 people who died!" Actually, the viewing audience didn't care about the subject matter and the show got zero ratings and was quickly forgotten about.

Same thing with "wrong" record labels, 1980s turntables in 1960s shows, 1970s mics in 1950s movies, stuff like that. And I really hate it when 1960s/1970s songs are recreated with Auto-Tuned vocals. Don't get me STAHted...

 

Personally, I’m really enjoying this show. It doesn’t have to be a 100% perfect representation of the time period it occurred in to be a decent watch. The actors are good, and I’m invested in the characters and their stories. It’s interesting to see the differences they’ve come up with between the book and the series so far, as well.

I find the music to be great, too. Sure, it’s a facsimile of the Fleetwood Mac sound, but being inspired by them, that was the idea. I think they’ve done a good job of showing the progression of the band from The Dunne Brothers (mostly covers and some originals) to The Six (switching to all originals, and the music getting better as they go along) to starting to achieve their true potential once Daisy Jones joins.

I bought the Aurora album after watching the first three episodes, and the whole record has really grown on me. (In fact it might just be one of my favorite releases of this year so far, which is not bad for a “fake” band.) Hearing and seeing these songs during the in-studio and in-concert performance scenes are what really brings it alive for me. I like, too, that rather than just dubbing in the album version of the music for Aurora, the takes they use for the show are different. I actually prefer the version of “Let Me Down Easy” used in the show (see attached video) compared to the album version. It’s cleaner and less busy. They also do a neat trick where as the camera circles the room, the music or vocals being performed by each member become momentarily louder as the camera focuses on them. Nice touch.



Even though I’ve seen Jackson Browne and Phoebe Bridgers attached to the music in the show, their names are nowhere to be found in the album’s credits. Most of the music was written, performed and co-produced by Blake Mills (Dawes), with occasional co-writes and musical contributions from others. On the performance side, Kane Richtote (from Portugal The Man) plays drums on several tracks, and Roger Manning Jr (Jellyfish, Imperial Drag, Beck) contributes keyboards here and there, with backing vocals and a song co-write or two by Z Berg (The Like, JJAMZ and Phases). The lead vocals are handled by the shows two leads - Sam Claflin and Reily Keough. I’m thinking that Browne and Bridgers might have been more technical consultants, or could have contributed to the series other original music. I’m also hoping Amazon (and Atlantic Records) capitalize on the further potential to release more music from this show, as there’s plenty more that was recorded (and which you can hear on Spotify) that isn’t on the Aurora album. They could make a whole separate soundtrack that was just comprised of that material, as well as the alternate takes they used for the studio and live performances on the show.

Anyway, with two shows left to go this season, I’m curious to see how far things will progress in the story. Will they wrap it up in one season, or extended things out for another? The book was a fairly quick read, so they could potentially make it a one season show. Guess we’ll find out in a couple of days when the last two episodes of this season arrive.

 

I think the album works beautifully as a "stand alone" album. And I would also love there to be more music "albums" released from this show!

 

this is unwatchable
yet I watch

 

Well, that drum recording is B.S., because there'd be risers and diffusers all around the guy to prevent leakage from getting into the vocal mics. NOBODY recorded drums like that in the '70s or '80s (at least that I ever saw. Even in the 1960s, George Martin put Ringo far away from the other Beatles and sometimes had shields and insulation around him to prevent his (very loud) drumming getting into the other mics. And generally they'd piece together the track, one part at a time, and have the performer play their part half a dozen or even dozens of times to get every note absolutely perfect -- in that era, using punch-ins on analog 16-track or 24-track tape. They might all play together for a rehearsal or an early take or something.

I agree the sound is not bad and the tune is decent.

Guilty as charged! I watch just to kvetch and complain.

 

My 32-year-old daughter had read the book and told me about this series, neither of us like it nor can I imagine either will finish it. I bowed out after the third episode. I was annoyed with the fact it seems everybody has a cigarette in their mouth all of the time, can tobacco companies pay for characters to smoke constantly? Every song sounds like album filler to me, no hit singles and I am not getting the similarity to Fleetwood Mac, not even vaguely.

 

Really?? Everyone I knew smoked in the 70s. It was almost a rite of passage.

 

“ChatGPT, write me a song that sounds like Fleetwood Mac.” Easy as pie..

 

One day they're going to make a mainstream commercial show showing how awesome recreational drugs are but this ain't it. You expect Betty Ford and Nancy Reagan to pop up and give a drugs are bad commentary at the end of every episode. The fact they've used Neu! and The Jam on the soundtrack shows the producers want us to know they're a lot hipper than anyone in the band.

 

I was expecting some sort of payoff for the use of The Jam, like the group learning about this new thing happening in New York and London, but it didn't happen (at least, not yet - there's two more episodes to go).

It's not impossible that Americans knew about Neu! in the 70s - some critics wrote about them, and Bowie and Eno talked them up. It's less likely that an L.A. band in that Laurel Canyon orbit would have been listening.

 

It was played over the end credits of one episode.

I expected them to run into The Damned touring The States cross country. Maybe the keyboard girl could have a fling with Rat Scabies.

 

Only if ChatGPT never heard Fleetwood Mac’s rhythm section or understood its importance.

 

Like I said, I get that things aren’t 100% authentic, and I can spot what some of those are. However, I like to try and suspend my disbelief enough where it doesn’t have to ruin the viewing experience for me. I get that for you, with all your years of on-hand and behind the scenes experience, it’s decidedly harder to do that, though.

 

I don’t listen to enough modern Country to hear that, myself. As far as the Country sounding aspect to some of the band’s music, that’s not really an issue for me, as there were plenty of Southern California artists in the 70’s era who had that going through their music then as well - Linda Ronstadt, The Eagles, later period Byrds, Graham Parsons, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Mike Nesmith & The First National Band…etc.

I think that was part of the point, being they were a main inspiration for the book/show. And while that’s true for half of what makes up the Aurora album, I wouldn’t say that about the Dunne Brothers or The Six’s material before Daisy Jones starts working with the band. I like to think of this show existing in a parallel universe, one where Fleetwood Mac doesn’t exist (yet to be a single mention of them), but where Daisy Jones and The Six occupy their place instead.

Me either, but I quite like what they did come up with. Several of these tunes have been stuck in my head for weeks.

Exactly, and that’s the right perspective to view it from. It’s not meant to be taken too seriously.

 

There are several times, in various episodes, where there’s a title over the beginning of the scene that tells you exactly when it’s taking place. The book chapters were laid out that way, too. The series starts in the late 60’s, and they’re currently in the early summer of 1977. The future interview scenes are set in the 90’s - which is 20 years into the future, where as in the book, it’s 40 years and happening now. I think the producers thought it would be easier to age the characters out 20 years in appearance and still be able to use the same actors.

 

True......

 

You know, being a 50-something male I don't really understand any of this... but I wholeheartedly agree with it!

"Down with this sort of thing!" as a wise priest once said...

 

And Patti Smith over the opening credits.... but it's only with hindsight that it's considered 'hip' isn't it?? Not at the time. No way! As a side-note, I reckon the Jam would have settled for a lot less hipness and more sales success in the US given the choice!

Looking forward to the last two episodes. Seeing 'Vinyl' was brought up, I have to say, Riley Keough easily sails past James Jagger's acting abilities! Have enjoyed most of her performances from The Runaways on.

 

Anyone at CBGBs or Max's in 1977 would have thought they were hipper than Fleetwood Mac fans in Albuquerque.

 

Unfortunately I was a loooong way from CBGBs trying not to get my head kicked in!!! Were you there Mylene? If so kudos to you.

 

When they can convince me that it's all real, then I'm really happy and impressed. It just doesn't happen nearly enough, and it winds up looking cheap and sloppy... basically that they didn't care enough to do the research to get it right.

Yeah, Patti Smith would be very niche in 1973-74. Huge in FM Rock circles by the end of the decade (though I was never a fan). I was more a pop/Top 40 guy, certainly leaning more in the "Fleetwood Mac" direction of the show.

 

I was in Melbourne so I was seeing Radio Birdman at the Tiger Room and The Boys Next Door at the Crystal Ballroom.