Tuesday, December 3, 2013

We're excited to announce a new transmedia* project: 

The Songs of Dyson Burnette


Our project is a an album of original songs written by the hero of our latest novel, Stations of the Cross. Dyson Burnette, Rock Hall of Fame inductee, ends up in Mexico, where he tries to revive his career by finishing a 40-year-old song, "Stations of the Cross."

Not to give too much away from the book, but he does! And here's current NYC-based singer-songwriter Josh Elkes singing the book's title tune, "Stations of the Cross."



We also have Elkes singing a much shorter, very catchy Dyson tune: "Avalon." (You might want to check this one out first.)


We're working on a full album of Dyson Burnette tunes, performed by strong, up-and-coming performers. Check back to www.coralpress.com for more news and sign up for our newsletter.



*What's transmedia? Seems to be "multiplatform storytelling." Indeed, Variety calls it the "current buzzword" while talking about Inside Llewyn Davis, referring to the mix of movie, music album, concerts—a whole gamut of media around one creative work. Here's a NY Film Festival talk on it: 





Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Musical Fiction Wins Pulitzer Prize

Big congrats to Jennifer Egan and her novel A Visit from the Goon Squad for taking the 2011 Pulitzer Prize.

We've long been fans of her novels and short fiction, and are especially pleased to see a true musical fiction take such a prestigious award. Here's her personal website to see what else she's up to.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Wonderful Match of Music and Books

How could we at Coral Press not love this current trend to turn classic rock albums into vintage paperback covers? Here's our favorite:


But there are many more. There's a whole selection here,  and the guy evidently is going to be selling packs of cards of these. Highly recommended.

We at Coral Press love to play around with the imagery for our books, and of course our latest novel, Look at Flower, was inspired by an original Fillmore poster by Bonnie MacLean; and we have an issue of our favorite '60s teen mag devoted to "Flower" up on Flower's site right here. Here's a pic of that:


Oh, and one more great mock cover:


Wednesday, February 9, 2011


I was reading one of those great Continuum 33 1/3 CD-size books on great LPs, this one on Van Dyke Parks’s Song Cycle, and I was struck by the opening: “Anyone unlucky enough not to have been aged between 14 and 30 during 1966-67 will never know the excitement of those years in popular culture. A sunny optimism permeated everything and possibilities seemed limitless.”

The quote is actually from Ian MacDonald’s extraordinary Beatles book, Revolution in the Head, but when I read it, it made me see why in my own novels I find them often set in years that overlap 1966-67, witness Meet the Annas, Look at Flower, and the forthcoming Surf Music Rules.

Surf Music Rules is the reason I was checking out the Van Dyke Parks book. My novel is an epic tale of the L.A. music scene from th

e surf music days of 1961–2 to 1968, when my hero, Nick Berry, dies on the beach in Mexico from a heroin overdose. The novel’s completed; publication should be announced soon.

In his life, Nick Berry passes through that magical time of ’66–67, and I realized that one of the reasons I write my musical fictions is to capture that magic and make it present and rich for all readers, especially those who weren’t there. I was myself 15 and 16 then, and as I recall, possibilities did seem limitless … as possibilities always should.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Leiber and Stoller signing autobiography

I haven't updated the blog recently since I've 1) been working hard on draft No. 5 of a new novel, Surf Music Rules (excerpts coming soon on the Playlist) and 2) all of us here at Coral Press have been working hard upgrading the website.

But ... a great night a few weeks back, worth posting about. Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller appeared at a nearby Barnes and Noble, and there was a large turnout to meet them and get copies of their autobiography, Hound Dog, signed. The two songwriters (Hound Dog, of course, plus most of the Coasters' hits, a number of other strong Elvis tunes, even Peggy Lee's devastating Is That All There Is) told funny, sneaky, charming stories and answered questions for more than an hour—and then the long line to get books signed snaked its way through the bookstore's reading room.

The reason to talk about Leiber and Stoller in the Coral Press blog is that, as much as any other songwriters, they've incorporated stories into their songs—indeed, many of the songs could be short stories or playlets (and, no surprise, the theatrical revue comprised of their songs, Smokey Joe's Cafe, was the longest running musical revue in Broadway history—though, ironically, it had no overall story).

Think of the great Coasters’ hit Yakkety-Yak (the Leiber-Stoller song that became the title of their Big Band LP, with the picture of the derby-topped songwriters gamboling with an actual yak). The way the song came about, according to Hound Dog: Jerry was boiling water in the kitchen while Mike was banging out piano chords. Jerry heard a particular rhythm, presumably looked down, saw a trash barrel, and shouted out, “Take out the papers and the trash!” Like that, Mike cried, “Or you don’t get no spending cash!” Ten minutes later the song was born.

What’s impressive here, apart from the speed of composition and the way they seemed to read each others’ minds, is how from the very start character and plot are created: the kid homebound at summer, getting grief from his parents, kept from doing what he wants to do (rock and rolling with his hoodlum friends)—essentially, how the situation is immediately a proposition, an exchange, a drama over who has power and control. All this in less than three glorious minutes of wax time.

And you see it! Joseph Conrad tells us in fiction above all: Make us see! Leiber and Stoller immediately put us in that household (we see the papers, the trash), burdened with our own tasks, listening to that voice (close to Peanuts’ TV adults squawking godlike off-camera?) control our lives, setting up blocks to our pleasure, always making deals, always trying to steal our rock and roll joy.

Genius.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

LA Trip


Just back from a week in Los Angeles, among other things researching a new musical novel, Surf Music Rules.

Surf Music Rules is the story of Nick Berry, founder of the L.A. surf music band The Revelators, and later the folk-rock group the Radiant Berries. The novel will tell his full tale, from days of innocence in the early '60s till a tragic end at the end of that decade.

A highpoint of my trip was a tour of Sunset Sound Recorders, where in the day the first Doors LPs and the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds were recorded. Sunset Sound was kind of enough to let me poke around, and here's a photo of me at their mixing board.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Laura Levine

Maybe we here at Coral Press have synesthesia—the mental state that confuses senses, allowing you to hear colors, see music, etc.—because not only does Coral Press love music as music, we love music as fiction ... as story.
But we also love the music as art, and to that end we spent a fun afternoon last weekend in Phoenicia, N. Y. After downing the great pancakes at Sweet Sue’s on Main Street, we crossed the macadam and ended up at the Mystery Spot—truly one of upstate New York’s great finds.

The Mystery Spot is a gallimaufry of inherently luminous cast-offs owned and operated by Laura Levine, who does striking outsider art–like paintings of early rock figures and venerable country artists. These paintings have been published, along with informative words from Holly George-Warren, in two terrific books: Shake, Rattle & Roll and Honky-Tonk Heroes and Hillbilly Angels.

Both books are highly recommended—Laura’s paintings capture, in their forceful colors, deep-rooted innocence, and devil-may-care whimsy, much of the essential mystery that makes early rock and country music so powerful; and if you hie yourself to the Mystery Spot, Laura will autograph each book personally for you.

We recommend you check out Laura Levine's website and support not simply musical fiction but also musical art.