Daisy Jones & The Six’s ‘Aurora’ Lyrics Have an Emotional Meaning—in the Book and the Show

Spoilers below.

Billy Dunne, frontman of The Six, writes a lot of songs about his wife. After going on a bender and missing the birth of their first child to go to rehab, he has a lot of making up to do and, for an artist like him, music is the best vehicle for it. In Taylor Jenkins Reid’s Daisy Jones & The Six novel, his heartfelt composition “Aurora” sums it up best.

In the book, Billy writes the song for his devoted wife Camila to show his appreciation for her sticking with him through his struggles and for being his anchor on his difficult journey to healing. He plays the piano ballad for her for the first time after she gives birth to their twins.

“It was called ‘Aurora.’ Because Camila…she was my aurora,” Reid writes as Billy. “She was my new dawn, my daybreak, my sun peeking over the horizon. She was all of it.”

“The first time I heard it, I cried,” Camila says in the book. “I mean, you know that song. It would have been impossible for me to not feel bowled over by those words. He had written me others but…this one…I loved it and I felt loved listening to it. And it was pretty, too. I would have loved that song even if it wasn’t about me. It was that good.”

Still, Camila suggests that Daisy Jones sing on the song. She and Billy both knew that it would sound even better with her.

In Prime Video’s series adaptation of the book, the songwriting process behind “Aurora” doesn’t take up much screen time, though the creation of other songs, like “Let Me Down Easy,” do. However, it does soundtrack a few scenes and the band is seen performing it onstage as they tour. It is also acknowledged in other scenes that Billy’s songs are mostly about Camila. The recorded version of “Aurora” is bouncy, sunny, and upbeat instead of a ballad; the lyrics are different but still reference the original’s romantic message with lines like “you’re my morning sun.”

The song connects to Camila and Billy’s story in another way, though. In the finale episode, Daisy Jones & The Six perform “Aurora” at their final concert in Chicago while Camila (Camila Morrone) watches from the audience. Billy (Sam Claflin), assuming Camila has left, doesn’t realize she’s there. He and Daisy (Riley Keough) are more flirtatious than ever onstage, with their attraction at an all-time high, unable to stay away from each other and nearly touching lips while sharing the same mic. Camila is visibly emotional in the crowd; she seems nostalgic for her and Billy’s love story as scenes of their romance through the years, from high school to their rough patches to becoming young parents, flicker across the screen. But she’s also, understandably, in pain. Earlier that day, she had confronted Billy and Daisy separately on what’s been going on between them, and here she is now, watching sparks fly across the stage. It’s as if she’s coming to terms with both the love she and Billy share as well as the betrayal and hurt he’s inflicted on her. Ultimately, she leaves, though Billy would later chase after her mid-performance to make things right.

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While “Aurora,” also the title track of the band’s big album, doesn’t take up much of the narrative, the process of writing the actual song was quite important. It acted as a starting-off point for songwriter/producer Blake Mills and his team as they began composing original music for the Daisy Jones & The Six series.

“That was one of the first songs that they submitted to us that was almost like a prototype of, ‘This is what we think the album’s going to sound like,’” Executive Producer and Co-Showrunner Scott Neustadter tells ELLE.com.

“It has a very Fleetwood Mac-y vibe to it. And it just was great. And the band learned to play it very early on. And so it was one of the songs that they practiced while we were quarantining, and they would make a Zoom video of them playing the song. And it’s another one that just you could totally hear on the radio.”

“Aurora” was written by Mills, Chris Weisman, Cass McCombs, and Matt Sweeney. It features Mills on guitar, bass, and drums; Stuart Johnson also on drums; Roger Manning Jr. on organ and clavinet performed by Roger Manning Jr.; handclaps performed by James Petralli; and background vocals by Nicki Bluhm and James Petralli. And of course, Claflin and Keough performed their own vocals as Billy and Daisy.

Read the full lyrics to “Aurora” below. Keep scrolling for the original version from the novel.

You found me in the flames
The daylight of change
All that stuff is done
You’re my morning sun
Aurora you’re the one
You’re my morning sun

When I was away
You called from a fever dream
My crazy ways are done
You’re my morning sun
Aurora
You’re my morning sun

I kinda think I wanna make this last forever (x3)
I kinda think I wanna make this last forever (echo)

Aurora I’m here
I won’t disappear again
How soon can you come
You’re my morning sun
Aurora, you’re the one
You’re my morning sun
Aurora you’re the one

And where did you turn
When you needed tenderness
When you reached out for my touch
And I couldn’t give you much
Of all the time we lost while I was
Running from the light
To the shadows of the west
Strung out on a line
With my tongue out of my mouth
In a Ford Econoline

I kinda thought that night was gonna last forever (x3)
I kinda thought that night was gonna last forever (echo)

(Breakdown)

I kinda thought that night was gonna last forever (x3)
I kinda thought that night was gonna last forever (echo)

And here are the “Aurora” lyrics from Reid’s novel.

When the seas are breaking
And the sails are shaking
When the captain’s praying
Here comes Aurora

Aurora, Aurora

When the lightning is cracking
And thunder is clapping
When the mothers are gasping
Here comes Aurora

Aurora, Aurora

When the wind is racing
And the storm is chasing
When even the preachers are pacing
Here comes Aurora

Aurora, Aurora

When I was drowning
Three sheets and counting
The skies cleared
And you appeared
And I said, “Here is my Aurora”

Aurora, Aurora