A new Melville House book out this week by New Yorker editor Ben Greenman takes the art of writing fiction about music to new heights. Called Please Step Back, it tells the turbulent tale of fallen American rock star, Rock Foxx, and is based on the life and times of such funk-rock greats as James Brown and Sly Stone. To quote Greenman, “Sly is an artist at the level of, oh, I don’t know, Picasso or Joyce, and what did him in was so predictable and unfortunate that it is a loss to everyone.”

A starred review in Publishers Weekly hails the book as ‘fresh and explosive.’ Other early fans include Walter Mosley, for whom the book ‘sings of the back-street, back-stage hyper-kinetic moment when music, stardom, and cultural sea changes pushed America irrevocably forward’, and the New Yorker’s pop music critic Sasha Frere-Jones,who says Greenman’s dialogue is’ as terse, piercing and easeful as Sly Stone’s lyrics.’

And this cake has a cherry: in the collaboration of the year, funk-rock legend, Swamp Dogg has recorded a cover of the book’s title track ‘Please Step Back’ and it’s been spreading like wild fire since Largehearted Boy broke the story and the song here—and quick to jump on the band wagon were The Daily Beast, Flavorwire, The Village Voice, and the Portland Oregonian.

Ahead of his New York launch at Galapagos Art Space May 12, Greenman will be blogging for MobyLives as he conquers LA, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland… For a taster of the fun to come, check out his Tour Rider just posted at McSweeney’s and thank your lucky stars you’re not his publicist…