Daisy Jones & The Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid Page 0,26
it did what it needed to do. People knew her name. She did a spot on American Bandstand, she did a great spread in Circus with her trademark hoop earrings.
She was gorgeous and outspoken and interesting. The music wasn’t there yet but … you knew Daisy Jones was heading somewhere. Her moment was coming.
Seven
Eight
Nine
1975–1976
Fresh out of rehab and at home with Camila and his new daughter, Billy Dunne started writing songs again. When he had enough material, The Six got back into the studio to record their second album. From June to December of 1975, The Six recorded the ten songs that would become SevenEightNine. But when the band was done, Teddy told them that Rich Palentino did not feel confident they had a number one single on the album.
Billy: It felt like being cut off at the knees. We were ready to go. We were proud of that album.
Eddie: To be honest with you, I was surprised Teddy had not brought this up sooner. I heard the master of the album and it felt soft to me—at least in terms of what we were making songs about. Everything Billy had written was about his family.
Pete said it best. “Rock ’n’ roll is about getting it on with a girl for the first time. Not about making love to your wife.” And that was Pete saying that! He was as whipped as Billy.
Graham: I told Teddy we had a lot of songs that could be good singles. I said, “What about ‘Hold Your Breath’?”
He said, “Too slow.”
I said, “What about ‘Give In’?”
He said, “Too hard rock.”
I kept naming songs and Teddy kept saying that Rich was right. The songs were good but we needed something with crossover appeal. He said we had to aim for number one. Our first album had done well but if we wanted to grow, we needed to aim higher.
I said, “Sure, but we aren’t trying to get to number one, necessarily. That’s for lowest common denominator stuff.”
Teddy said, “You should be aiming to be number one because you’re making the greatest fucking music out there.”
It was a fair point.
Billy: I don’t remember whose idea it was to do a duet. I know I wouldn’t have come up with it.
Eddie: When Teddy said he thought we should make “Honeycomb” a duet, I was even more confused. He was going to take the softest song on the album, add a female vocal to it, and that was going to fix the problem? That just made it even more of a Top 40 thing.
I said to Pete, “I will not be in a fucking soft rock band.”
Billy: “Honeycomb” is a romantic song, but it’s also kind of wistful. I’d written it about the life that I promised Camila. She wanted to move to North Carolina one day, when we were old and settling down. Her mother had grown up there. She wanted to get a place close to the water. Have a big lot of land with the closest neighbor a mile away.
It was a pledge I’d made her. That I would give her that one day. A big farmhouse, lots of kids. Some peace and quiet after all the storms I’d put her through. That’s what “Honeycomb” was about. It didn’t make any sense to have someone else come in on it.
Teddy disagreed. He said, “Write a part for a woman in it. Write what Camila would say back to you.”
Graham: I thought we should give Karen a shot at the duet. She had a great voice.
Karen: I don’t have the kind of voice that can carry a lead part. I can do you a solid and back you up in the chorus but I can’t hold my own.
Warren: Graham was always tripping over himself to pay Karen a compliment. I was always thinking, It’s not gonna happen for you, man. Get over it.
Billy: Teddy had all these ideas about bringing in a woman from the dance club scene. I did not like that.
Karen: Teddy named about ten girls until Billy finally relented. I watched it happen.
Billy was going down the list Teddy had written just going, “No. No. No. Tonya Reading? No. Suzy Smith? No.” And then Billy goes, “Who is Daisy Jones?”
And Teddy got all amped up, said he was hoping Billy would ask that because he thought Daisy was the one.
Graham: Now, I’d heard Daisy sing at the Golden Bear a few months back. I thought she was sexy as hell. Her