10 Killer Rock Music Bands With No Guitarist

Morphine, the self-proclaimed 'three guys from Massachusetts', are so much more than their band name or own description can convey. Calling their genre 'low rock' (a mix of blues, jazz and traditional rock elements), the whole founding purpose of the band was to create a rock outfit not built around the electric guitar. And boy, did they ever succeed.

Light on effects, but with a serious groove underpinning every track, massaging in country and blues elements, Morphine had a blazing first decade in the limelight, putting out five albums between 1989 and 1999. Unlike any other bassist on this list, Mark Sandman used just two-strings on his instrument and wielded a glass slide - not something a whole many bassists of any calibre would feel confident using.

With solos often undertaken by their resident saxophonist Dana Colley (who played baritone, tenor and double), and songs occasionally featuring dual drummers/percussionists - particularly in the late '90s, when original drummer Jerome Deupree and his on-off replacement Billy Conway were both on board as full-time members - Morphine's records have a sound that is quite unlike anything else in the rock world.

But don't expect to hear anything new from them, as Sandman sadly collapsed and died on stage in 1999, bringing the group to an abrupt and unjust end.