[link to original on tumblr]
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Both songs are based on (mostly) diatonic bass parts. During the first half of the verses of "Care of Cell 44" and during the first half of the bridge of "I Want Her She Wants Me," the bass plays almost a whole descending scale. What's weird is that "I Want Her She Wants Me," while the older song, is more inventive in how the chords are positioned on top of this (mostly) diatonic line.
The bass part for the first half of the verses of "Care of Cell 44" is G, F#, E, D, C, B, A (an unresolved descending G major scale). The chords on top of that are G major, D major, E minor, D major, C major, B minor, A minor. The relationships between the bass note and the overlaying chord are root, third, root, root, root, root, and root, respectively.
The bass part for the first half of the bridges of "I Want Her She Wants Me" is G, F, Eb, D, C, B, which isn't a scale, but resembles one. The chords on top of it are G major, G major dominant 7th, Eb major, G minor, C minor, G major. What's interesting here is that there are two key changes. It starts in G major, goes to Eb major, and then comes back to G major. The relationships between these notes and the overlaying chords are root, dominant seventh, root, fifth, root, and third, respectively.
Here's a chart of both of them:
According to the Zombie Heaven liner notes, "I Want Her She Wants Me" is from 1966 (and the oldest song on the album), and apparently "Care of Cell 44" was written for Odessey and Oracle, so it's interesting that the older one is more adventurous as far as bass note/chord relationships, going so far as to include a key change while still retaining the descending bass line.
I'd also just like to note that this sort of comparison is possible because both sections of these two songs have a pretty steady one-to-one ratio of bass note/overlaying chord. Lots of other bass/chord rhythms are more complex than this.
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This post is the fourth of five ideas/realizations I had about Odessey and Oracle.
