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The Bastard Instrument: A Cultural History of the Electric Bass

by Brian F. Wright

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Tracing the electric bass from novelty instrument to popular-music mainstay

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Paperback New English

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AlbakiReads Editorial

Tracing the electric bass from novelty instrument to popular-music mainstay

Brian F. Wright charts the electric bass from its invention to its broad acceptance by the close of the 1960s, placing its players within the changing sound of American popular music. The book follows the instrument across jazz, rhythm and blues, rock, country, soul, and funk, using recorded performances associated with artists including Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, the Supremes, the Beatles, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, and Sly and the Family Stone. By centering bassists whose work often remained in the background, it frames the electric bass as a force in the development of postwar popular styles and recording culture.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Music-history readers interested in postwar popular music
  • Electric bass players curious about the instrument’s early development
  • Listeners interested in the connections among jazz, R&B, rock, country, soul, and funk

Themes

Electric bass historySession and performing musiciansPostwar popular musicRecorded sound and innovationJazz, R&B, rock, country, soul, and funk

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

2024 ASCAP Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Book Award in Pop Music

  • 2024 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award for Performing Arts & Music
  • 2025 ARSC Certificate of Merit for Best Historical Research on Record Labels or General Recording Topics

The Bastard Instrument chronicles the history of the electric bass and the musicians who played it, from the instrument's invention through its widespread acceptance at the end of the 1960s. Although their contributions have often gone unsung, electric bassists helped shape the sound of a wide range of genres, including jazz, rhythm & blues, rock, country, soul, funk, and more. Their innovations are preserved in performances from artists as diverse as Lionel Hampton, Liberace, Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, the Supremes, the Beatles, James Brown, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Jefferson Airplane, and Sly and the Family Stone, all of whom are discussed in this volume. At long last, The Bastard Instrument gives these early electric bassists credit for the significance of their accomplishments and demonstrates how they fundamentally altered the trajectory of popular music.

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