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Summary
The Numbers Tour, 1976-1977, Chapters 3-5
Chapter 3
In the aftermath of the article, Daisy keeps quiet. Rod, who becomes Daisy’s manager after her fallout with Hank, tells Daisy to sit tight in the hopes that she’ll be able to officially join The Six. On the flight back to the United States, Billy starts asking some of the other members of the band what they think about Daisy joining. Everyone he talks to—Karen, Warren, and Graham—is supportive, but he neglects to talk to Eddie, which Eddie is furious about. Karen and Graham sneak away to be together on the plane. Though Warren knows that Karen is with someone, their relationship is still a secret since he thinks that Karen is seeing their sound guy, Bones. Karen says that the reason that Billy didn’t want Daisy to join the band was because he was unsettled by her. When they land, Teddy tells Billy that if he wants to be the biggest band in the world, he should let Daisy join. Billy gives the green light despite his reservations.
Chapter 4
Under her pseudonym Lola La Cava, Daisy throws a party at the Marmont during which Rod calls with the news that they want her to join The Six. Daisy is extremely excited, but she doesn’t have anyone to celebrate with as none of the people at her party actually care about her. Daisy understands that her party guests just care about drugs. Daisy calls Simone, who has been worried about Daisy’s drug use especially while touring with a rock band. She tries to convince Simone to come out with her, but Simone is already in bed. Daisy decides she wants to tell her parents, so at 4:00 AM she breaks into her old bedroom and falls asleep in her bed. Daisy wakes up to the police standing over her because her parents thought they were being burglarized. Simone bails her out and tries to get her to stop doing drugs.
Meanwhile, Camila goes into labor. Unlike Julia’s birth, Billy is there for the entire event and gets to hold his twin daughters, Susana and Maria, as new babies. He is happy but struggles with shame over not being there for Julia’s birth. After Susana and Maria are born, Billy thinks about quitting music, but Camila dissuades him because she knows he’s a musician to his core. Billy writes a song for Camila called “Aurora,” calling her the light of his life. When Camila hears the song, she cries and suggests Daisy should sing on it, too. Billy admits that he had had the same idea when he wrote it.
Chapter 5
The band meets to officially welcome Daisy and to get started on their next album. Daisy wants to start off her work with The Six as an equal, so she makes a speech emphasizing that this album is all of theirs. Daisy says she wants to write the album with Billy rather than simply sing what he has already written because she sees this as her opportunity to finally write her own songs. Billy says that they’re all in it together, but the other band members disagree, saying that this has not been the case as Billy has always been in charge. Taking their cues from Daisy, the other band members say they want more ownership over their roles in the band. Billy feels picked on but ultimately agrees, and even gives Daisy top billing in the band. They become Daisy Jones & The Six.
Analysis
aisy’s pseudonym, Lola La Cava, which she tends to use when she’s partying, represents the dark aspects of Daisy’s behavior, such as her drug addiction and self-destruction. The surname “La Cava” means “wine cellar” in Spanish or “cellar” or “hole” in Italian. This pseudonym evokes Daisy’s shadowy side, which is marked by the self-destructive behaviors that Daisy engages in. Often, these are attempts to soothe her emotional pain or to seek out love in misguided places. For example, after she can’t find anyone to celebrate with after she joins The Six, Daisy drinks and uses substances until she blacks out. This is an attempt to manage her disappointment that no one seems to care about her success. She also breaks into her family home in an attempt to seek her parents’ approval. Instead, they arrest her for breaking and entering, suggesting that her home is a place in which she is treated like a stranger. Her misguided attempts to find love are akin to criminality.
The song “Aurora,” which becomes the centerpiece of the album Aurora, represents both the light of Billy’s love for Camila and the darkness that Daisy’s and Billy’s relationship causes them all. In Roman mythology, Aurora is the goddess of the dawn, and Billy says that he wrote “Aurora” for Camila because his love for her was his sun. She represented his new dawn, or his chance at a new life unmarred by drug addiction, infidelity, and shame. However, he also wrote the song with Daisy in mind, imagining that they would sing it as a duet. Billy’s creative and romantic relationship with Daisy, which takes place as they are creating Aurora, marks the period of turmoil before Billy fully settles down with Camila. In this sense, this is a period of great darkness for Billy and Daisy, as they fall in love with each other and grapple with the fact that they cannot be together. Though they bring out the best in each other in many ways, especially creatively, their love is impossible. Thus, the time they spend creating Aurora is one of the darkest periods for Billy and Daisy, evocative of the phrase “it’s always darkest before the dawn.”
Throughout their relationship, Billy and Daisy both struggle for love and power. In these chapters, Billy finds filial love and contentment at home with Camila after the births of Susana and Maria. He has reached a new level of contentment and even considers quitting music in order to protect their peace. In part, Billy is unsettled by Daisy and knows that agreeing to work with her on the album may threaten the love he’s found with his family. At the same time, Daisy is almost entirely alone. She’s searching for love in the wrong places—in the bottom of a pill bottle, with men who don’t understand her, and in her parents’ home. However, she’s flush with creative power, ready to inhabit her role as a songwriter which is the goal she’s had since she was a teenager. Billy, in the face of her drive, also feels threatened by her power, losing his grip on the band as soon as Daisy comes on board. Throughout their relationship, it’s difficult for both Billy and Daisy to hold on to a sense of love and personal power at the same time, and they each pendulum between feeling defiantly empowered and vulnerably in love.
