Daisy Jones & The Six – Episode 1 “Track 1: Come and Get It” Recap & Review

The Origin Story

Episode 1 of Daisy Jones & The Six, titled ‘Track 1: Come and Get It’, begins with the former members of the band Daisy Jones & The Six getting ready for a documentary. It is revealed that they were the biggest bands of the 70s having a sold-out performance in Chicago in October 1977 following their multi-platinum album ‘Aurora’.

It would also end up being their last performance. It is followed by a quick montage of them constantly fighting, making music and their chemistry on stage being an act. 20 years later, they are ready to participate in a tell-all documentary and Billy is surprised that Daisy agreed to it as well.

Daisy Jones is introduced as the lead singer/songwriter and starts talking about her childhood in LA when she first fell in love with music. It is revealed that she came from a rich family and was pretty but her mother would be fed up with her singing and often tell her to shut up. One day, as a teenager, she watches the rock band The Byrds perform and falls in love with the rock scene. 

At the same time in Pittsburgh, lead singer/songwriter Billy reminisces that young boys either worked at the mill or were drafted for the war. He wanted to do something and would play the guitar in his free time. At home, his younger brother Graham sulks after getting dumped and after Billy tells him he would find someone especially since he plays the guitar, Graham starts a band.

Drummer Warren says Graham roped him in and 2 of their classmates, Eddie and Chuck and convinced them that Billy, the chick magnet would also join them. Billy laughs and shares that he never actually agreed to join the band but just mentor them. But after he sees the mess they are, Graham suggests Billy should show them how it’s done and he ends up making the band his which Eddie the first lead singer turned bassist doesn’t appreciate.

In LA, 15-year-old Daisy now spends her nights hopping bars and watching bands like The Who and Led Zeppelin. After it is suggested that she is forced to sleep with a singer and feels helpless, she decides to write down her feelings via song.

By 1970, Billy’s band, Dunne Brothers start playing gigs at proms, graduation parties, sweet 16s and weddings. Graham calls the band an escape and never thought it would get big. One night, Billy storms out after he witnesses his father who is not supposed to be in town with a young girl. Graham shares that while he never remembered him as he left when he was 4, his brother worships him.

Billy tries to confront the father who recognizes the guitar but not him. Furious, Billy breaks the guitar while Graham punches the dad. Graham claims that was the moment everything changed and Billy decided that they would become the biggest band ever. Billy says he believed it even before he met Daisy. 

Meanwhile, Daisy becomes a pot-smoking hippie, writing songs and partying. One day her mother finds her songbook and while Daisy is angry at the invasion of privacy, looks for validation but her mother simply says she is pretty. 

At a laundromat, Billy has an awkward encounter with a girl, Camilla as he thinks she is a fan but she doesn’t know him. Her complete apathy has him embarrassed and he tries to fix it. However, present-day Camilla reveals that she actually knew Billy and every girl in town knew him. She mocks him and to make a better first impression he flirts with her and asks her for a number in exchange for him writing a song about her.

Eddie explains that he was friends with Camilla and everyone was in love with her suggesting that even he was. After she starts dating Billy, she records the band while they practise all day every day for a year. She even invites Billy home for dinner. Her father is cold as he wonders if music can pay his bills but Graham says he never doubted it. 

The next day as the band heads to Chuck’s garage for practice he stops them. He says he is going to dental at college and they are upset by the betrayal. He doesn’t believe there is a future for the band and he leaves. Billy requests Eddie to fill in for Chuck as the bassist which he doesn’t like but agrees to as he thinks it is temporary.

In LA, Daisy’s musician boyfriend finds her songbook and plays a song on his guitar. He tells her that she is good and ends up stealing the song as his own. She lets him because she didn’t believe in herself back then. She says that it was disco pioneer Simone Jackson who opens her eyes to her own potential during a Beverley Hills party. 

As for the Dunne Brothers, they get ready to open for the band The Winters with Graham falling in love at first sight with their keyboardist, Karen. As they leave, Graham asks if she will stick around to which she says no. However, she returns and watches them perform to a hyped-up crowd. She sits with tour manager Rod Reyes who claims he could see talent in Billy just like any person living under a rock can identify talent in Mick Jagger.

After their performance, he gives the band pointers and suggests they need to go to LA to get a record deal. The band agrees to move to LA but Billy wonders how to break it to Camilla. She says she cannot follow him around as she has school and a life, and breaks up with him. While she cries to her mother, she realises that her mom too had left her life for her husband. The next day, as the boys are packing, Camilla joins them, much to Eddie’s dismay and Billy’s delight.

At a gas station, Daisy hears the song her musician ex stole playing over the radio and is upset. She hangs out with her new boyfriend, Gary a scriptwriter and rants about her day. She says something profound and impressed, he says that he would like her to be his muse. She is angry at his choice of words and he laughs at her for wanting to be the one who makes art instead of being the inspiration.

She breaks up with him and ends up in a bar where she plays a song of hers on the piano. Meanwhile, Graham wonders if a keyboardist like Karen would add dimension to their band and Camilla writes it off as infatuation. As the Dunne Brothers reach LA, they pass by Daisy.

The Episode Review

You know you’re watching a really good mockumentary when you wish for everything that happened to be real. And that is Daisy Jones & The Six. A fictional rock ‘n roll band of the 70’s, right from a humble beginning to strained relationships and the classic bitter separation; the band’s story has it all.

We see it from episode 1 with Eddie who is first unhappy about Billy dating the girl he likes to getting changed from the lead singer to bass. Then there is also the struggling Dunne Brothers while Daisy is constantly used or looked down upon.

Well, along with the exposition which could easily get boring, the show perfects the hook-and-bait formula every few minutes as we are introduced to a new segment.

Right when we are almost over their childhood stories, they get their first break. When there is a lull in the story for some necessary plot twist, the actors keep us hooked. All in all, the premiere episode of Daisy Jones & The Six has just the right elements to lay a foundation for an interesting tale about interesting people.