70s Band Life
“Passion is...it's fire. And fire is great, man. But we're made of water. Water is how we keep living. Water is what we need to survive.”
To be honest, 9 stars just to state that this book didn't absolutely blow me away/change my life/own my heart and soul/become my new all-time favorite - like it did for other people. Also, I had some really tiny problems that I'll get too very soon and went through a little roller-coaster while reading this but it's mostly that I didn't get the hype surrounding this book in the fullest.
And that's the first thing: I hear about this book - 'cause it's freaking everywhere, you can't not hear about it - and then I look up what it's about and I'm thinking two things; a)oooh, this sounds quite interesting, I love rock bands and learning about their lifestyles - half of my YouTube history is band interviews and then b)well, yeah, but how the hell did this interest literally everyone? I just think it's the kind of subject you don't read about if you aren't invested in stuff like it in general, even a little bit. It just sounded way too specific, you know? But it turns out that people who had no past interest in finding out more about band-life/music scene of the 70s fell absolutely in love with this book. So, I guess, my first point is: Congrats to Taylor Jenkins Reid for managing to take this kind of material and introduce it into the mainstream, turn it into a best-seller.
Before going into this I was worried about the format; the Daisy Jones & The Six story is told through interviews and I thought maybe it would make the story hard to get through. However, the format was just great. It really suited the story and helped it move in just the right pace.
And, truly for the first third of the book I felt like I was reading an actual interview of an actual band - it was really well-shaped. In about the middle, though, I wasn't getting the right vibe from it. I can't quite put my finger on what it was; some of the quotes felt cliché and ... I don't know ... it felt a bit predictable, like the rock 'n roll band stories we've seen hundreds of times before and I was waiting for the big "splash", for the story to cross another line, take things a step further. Thankfully, this book did me no wrong; in about the third part, oh, my poor soul, it really kicked off and moved to another level.
First of all; the characters. They're nicely fleshed-out and there's something about each one to both love and hate. But it's not as much about the characters themselves. The dynamics between them are the ones really doing it.
Also, some really great feminism points were made in this. Daisy Jones is a woman determined to not change her attitude or dressing style to be respected by men. To not scandalise them. She's gonna go with her sexy self and people can say whatever they want. That's badass. And she's a real feminist. Karen doesn't want to give the world the tiniest "excuse" to sexualize her. She doesn't show her body so she can make sure that she gets in bands for her music, that the audience wants to see her for her playing, not her looks. And that's equally as badass. And she, too, is equally as a real feminist.
To add just a couple more things. I'm not sure you can call Daisy Jones and The Six the kind of band I would listen to. Everyone's like "omg, I wish they were a real band" but the lyrics don't really do it for me. Some of them are quite good but I wouldn't say they're like super super deep. Maybe I'll like them as the soundtrack of the show that will come out, though, which I'm super excited about. I don't usually like it when books I really like are made it into movies or shows but this one seems like it'd make a gorgeous show. Also, I'll probably reread this in audiobook form soon, although I really don't prefer audiobooks, because it feels like the kind of book that could really work better in audiobook.
