strip away the audible

It seems to be a summer tradition to revive the age-old question: Where is the novel that can capture the essence of rock'n'roll?

Some have been better than others, a few have been excellent, but none have truly convinced. And here's why:

a) Writing about music is hard enough at the best of times; try writing about music that doesn't exist. The basic inescapable flaw in every rock novel is the fact that the reader can't hear the music and thus struggles to identify with the artist. Strip away any audible, self-evident sign of talent - ie the songs - and most rock stars are simply posturing bores. Hardly the stuff of great fiction.

b) Good novelists have a tendency to get sloppy when they write about popular music - it's an exercise in cultural slumming that almost inevitably lends itself to unoriginal plots and indulgent writing. From their names on down - Ormus Cana? Bucky Wunderlick?! - the characters rarely ring true, apparently hell-bent on playing out the author's own fantasies rather than attempting to illuminate what this great rock and roll circus actually means.

c) Rock novels are pitched at an enormously demanding readership. If the atmosphere and language isn't spot on, we turn off. If we don't share the musical tastes of the writer, we struggle to engage: think of Iain Banks' patently awful prog rock band Frozen Gold in Espedair Street. We're so acutely aware of the tiniest rituals of a gig or the peculiarly nuanced language deployed by musicians that an author has to avoid a minefield of cliche while still creating something familiar enough to convince - and that's a tough tightrope to walk.