Scottish crime writer Ian Rankin has announced plans to release his debut single later this month, according to music magazine NME.
The award-winning author of the Inspector Rebus series has been collaborating with Charlatans singer Tim Burgess on a spoken-word project that combines a short story written by Rankin with music composed by Burgess.
The musical short story, called "A Little Bit of Powder," will be read by British actor Craig Parkinson.
The rock 'n' roll-loving Rankin, who titled his seventh Inspector Rebus book Let It Bleed after the Rolling Stones tune, certainly isn't the first author to collaborate with a musician on a song. Here are five other collaborations we've enjoyed.
Nick Hornby and Ben Folds
It's clear from reading Nick Hornby's books, particularly High Fidelity, that the man has a big record collection. So his 2010 album, Lonely Avenue, co-written with American singer-songwriter Ben Folds, seemed like a natural move. Hornby provided the lovelorn song lyrics while Folds wrote the ultra-catchy, piano-driven music.
Salman Rushdie and U2
Bono was inspired after reading Rushdie's 1999 novel The Ground Beneath Her Feet to write a ballad for the fictional character Ormus Carna grieving his dead lover. Rushdie gave permission to the band to incorporate his prose into the lyrics of the song, which appeared as part of the soundtrack for the film The Million Dollar Hotel. Rushdie even appeared in the music video.
William S. Burroughs and Kurt Cobain
The lead singer-songwriter of the iconic grunge band Nirvana was a lifelong fan of the Beat poet and author. In 1992, Cobain contacted him about the possibility of working on a musical literary project. What resulted was one of the most, uh, unique Christmas recordings of all time: Burroughs reading a short story about a heroin addict desperate to score on Christmas Eve, set to Cobain playing a wailing, dissonant version of Silent Night on guitar.
Margaret Atwood and the Sadies
In 2010, Atwood stopped by Q to talk about the book tour for her novel The Year of the Flood. It was an unconventional tour, featuring Canadian rock band the Sadies as a backing band during Atwood's readings. The band joined her on Q to perform a jaunty, Southern-style tune called The Water-Shrew That Rends Its Prey.
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