Two things about this post. First: Contrary to the posted score, James Jamerson did not write the bassline to Feelin' Alright. The song was written by Dave Mason and when Carol Kaye went into Sunset Sound Studios on Sept. 20, 1968 to record this song with Joe Cocker, she was handed a rough chord chart and that's it. Carol told me she created this bassline on the spot, and the other musicians did the same for their parts.
Carol said her line is based on a "boogaloo" feel, which was one of thousands of popular dances in the early 1960s. The bassline feel is twice the speed as the song's 4/4 time by the drummer.
The other thing to note is the transcription is inaccurate. I uploaded the transcription by Carol Kaye. The bottom four lines are incomplete, as there are two additional lines. But if you want to play this song "like the record," use Carol Kaye's transcription.
EDIT: wanted to add some clarification to the chart I uploaded. The first line is the intro and first verse, which the bass sits out.
The 2nd thru 5th lines are the chorus form - 8 bars
The 6th thru 9th lines are the verse & solo form, however I'm missing page 2, would would include two more lines for the verse/solo -- total 12 bars
Don't have notation for the bridge, which is 4 bars. But the chords are the same as for the whole song so I'd match the bridge to the intro --> | C9 | F | C9 | F |. In Carol's solo recorded bassline (available from her), she improvises some double and triple stops with a few notes to accent the rhythm. Good stuff!
Here's the recorded song form:
Intro -- 4 bars (piano & bongos)
Verse 1 -- 12 bars (no bass)
Chorus 1 -- 8 bars (bass & band enter here on bar 17)
Verse 2 -- 12 bars
Chorus 2 -- 8 bars
Solo (over verse form) -- 12 bars
Bridge -- 4 bars
Verse 3 -- 12 bars
Chorus 3 -- 12 bars
Outro -- 24 bars (follow chorus 2x and fade on last bar)
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