What are the chords for Janis Joplin’s Ball and Chain?

Question

What are the chords for Janis Joplin’s Ball and Chain? If you can’t identify all of them, that’s alright. There isn’t much lesson videos on this that I can see on YouTube.

mars · Answer

F#m, Bm, C#7, C7

pianoman · Answer

Joplin did not write that song, Big Mama Thornton did and sang it in D using the I,IV, V chords with the standard 12 bar blues pattern.

Tommymc · Answer

Janis plays it differently than Big Mama Thornton.  Big Mama does it as a standard 12 bar blues in D.  Janis plays it as a blues pattern in F#m.
Check out the chords here: https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/big-brother-the-holding-company/ball-and-chain-tabs-1866725

Michael E · Answer

Big Mama Thornton wrote Ball and Chain, not Janis.

https://chordify.net/chords/big-mama-thornton-ball-and-chain-dutchbluesfan

What are the chords for Janis Joplin’s Ball and Chain?

4 Answers