Don’t remember many daybreaks How many sunrises have come as I lay awake Don’t dwell on my worst mistakes But I always think of you
You’re the thing that’s crystal clear The only thing that I hold dear I live and die by if you’re near All other memories disappear Without you
Without you
Don’t remember how I was then Can’t keep straight where I was when What is my name, where have I been Where did I start, where does it end You’re the thing that’s crystal clear The only thing that I hold dear I live and die by if you’re near All other memories disappear Without you
Without you
Don’t remember who I used to be Can’t recall who has hurt me Forget the pain so suddenly Once I’m with you
You’re the thing that’s crystal clear The only thing that I hold dear I live and die by if you’re near All other memories disappear Without you
Without you
A Hope Like You
I’m easy talk and cheap goodbyes Second-rate in a first-class disguise My heart sleeps soundly, don’t wake it A hope like you could break it
I’m lost deep in crimes and vice Can’t get to the table to grab the dice My heart is weak, I can’t take it A hope like you could break it
It doesn’t matter how hard I try Can’t earn some things no matter why My heart knows we’d never make it A hope like you could break it
People say love changes you
As if change and love are easy to do My heart is calling and I can’t shake it But a hope like you could break it Some things end before they start The moment they form, they fall apart My heart wants so badly just to say it But a hope like you could break it Told myself this story a thousand times Can’t seem to break the wants free from my mind So much of my world goes unnamed Some people can’t be tamed
But maybe I should stake my claim Maybe I should claim my stake
I’ve heard some hopes are worth the break Yeah, maybe I should stake my claim Maybe I should claim my stake
On the chance the hope is worth the break
Aurora
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
To Mindy Jenkins and Jake Jenkins
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I was really interested in telling a story about two people who had complex feelings for one another, but were also trying to create something together that was separate from what was going on between them. And I set it in the '70s because it feels like such an evocative time in L.A.’s history. The Sunset Strip during that time had the Southern California sound, Fleetwood Mac, the Eagles, the Laurel Canyon scene having Crosby Stills and Nash, Joni Mitchell, and the Mommas and the Papas all living in the same neighborhood. I got really excited by that, and so I know that I am in a good space creatively when I want to get lost in something. It seems to be a good time that other people want to get lost in too, so that’s where it started.
I’ve always been really fascinated by Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham and their relationship. And so, wanting to write about a band similar to Fleetwood Mac was absolutely part of it. The other part of it is that I became really taken with a band called the Civil Wars, which was a band of just two people—a man and a woman—and they sang these incredibly intimate songs, but they weren’t together. They were married to other people, but they broke up, randomly—just very abruptly one night and they won’t talk about it. They won’t go on record about it, and I was very fascinated with that. And I’d known some friends who are musicians and I’ve seen, from a very distant perspective, the way that art and collaboration with another person can blur lines sometimes: whether you’re collaborating solely in a creative way or if the romance is creeping into that.
Seventies rock is a fun space to tell a story in, but it is dominated by white males. I wanted to tell a story that felt authentic, but focused on the people I’m interested in writing about: women and women of colour. Daisy, the keyboardist Karen, Billy’s wife Camila, Daisy’s best friend Simone, a disco star very loosely based on Donna Summer – those were the most important characters for me. Making sure their experiences were the ones being centred was something I worked on draft after draft. A big part of this book is the idea that there are a lot of ways for a woman to be in a man’s world. Seventies rock is a male-dominated space, and there are women in this story finding their way through that space. Their relationship to each other and the way they affect one another’s lives was something I was very intent on from the beginning. These are not women that are fighting with each other. These are women who are very different from one another but are supporting each other in the right to be whoever it is they want to be.
To my incomparable rep team: You all are so good at your jobs and seem to do them with such passion that I feel as if I’m armed at all sides.
To the book bloggers who write and tweet and snap photos all in the effort of telling people about my work, you are the reason I can continue to do what I do.