If yer interested in the "bass"ics , then you might like to read a book called:
"How the Fender Bass changed the world" by Jim Roberts
How the Fender Bass Changed the World
It's an excellent read, and tells a lot about how the electric bass found itself a niche
in the music of our times, and what the effect of that has been. The first one I heard was
played by Elvis Presley himself, on "Jailhouse Rock." I didn't know what it was, but thought
it was cool.
I found Robers' book fascinating of course, because I remember the times before the Electiric
bass. I was only a kid then, but listened to all kinds of music... Jazz and country and classical
as well as Rock an Roll and Folk music. I always could hear the bass, going thump thump thump,
but I never thought much of it till I was about 12. That would have been about 1960, when I
first heard some Surf Music, played on Fender electric guitars with a Fender Electric bass.
I loved the sound of that, as an adolescent. And it wasn't long before I began hearing black music
on what I considered "regular" radio. In the '50s, black music was only played on black stations.
Ridiculous, but that's how stupid people were then. That all changed as the sixties began,
and the sound of R&B and Soul music became the pulse of my juh juh juh generation baybee...
played right alongside white-bread artists like Pat Boone and Ricky Nelson (who still used standup basses).
First Lionel Hampton, then Elvis, then the Surfer Dudes, then the R & B bassists, and then the British Invasion.
So I was coming of age at the same time the Electic bass was working its way into popular music.
The book tells how that happened, and how our music has been forever changed.
It's been a hell of a ride.
