Lyrics to
Joey

This version of Joey was released by Bob Dylan in 1976.

Our Decade Lyrics Bob Dylan profile has all of the Joey lyrics from 1976 and many more songs from the Bob Dylan discography that we have on file.

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Born in Red Hook Brooklyn in the year of who knows when
Opened up his eyes to the tune of an accordion
Always on the outside whatever side there was
When they asked him why it had to be that way “Well” he answered “just because”.

Larry was the oldest Joey was next to last
They called Joe “Crazy” the baby they called “Kid Blast”
Some say they lived off gambling and running numbers too
It always seemed they got caught between the mob and the men in blue.

Joey, Joey
King of the streets child of clay
Joey, Joey
What made them want to come and blow you away.

There was talk they killed their rivals but the truth was far from that
No one ever knew for sure where they were really at
When they tried to strangle Larry, Joey almost hit the roof
He went out that night to seek revenge thinking he was bulletproof.

The war broke out at the break of dawn it emptied out the streets
Joey and his brothers suffered terrible defeats
Till they ventured out behind the lines and took five prisoners
They stashed them away in a basement called them amateurs.

The hostages were trembling when they heard a man exclaim
“Let’s blow this place to kingdom come let Con Edison take the blame”
But Joey stepped up, and he raised his hand and said, “We’re not those kind of men
It’s peace and quiet that we need to go back to work again”.

Joey, Joey
King of the streets child of clay
Joey, Joey
What made them want to come and blow you away.

The police department hounded him, they called him Mr. Smith
They got him on conspiracy, they were never sure who with
“What time is it” said the judge to Joey when they met
“Five to ten” said Joey. The judge says, “That’s exactly what you get”.

He did ten years in Attica, reading Nietzche and Wilhelm Reich
They threw him in the hole one time for trying to stop a strike
His closest friends were black men ’cause they seemed to understand
What it’s like to be in society with a shackle on your hand.

When they let him out in ’71 he’d lost a little weight
But he dressed like Jimmy Cagney and I swear he did look great
He tried to find the way back into the life he left behind
To the boss he said, “I’ve returned and now I want what’s mine”.

Joey, Joey
King of the streets child of clay
Joey, Joey
What made them want to come and blow you away.

It was true that in his later years he would not carry a gun
“I’m around too many children”, he’d say, “they should never know of one”
Yet he walked right into the clubhouse of his lifelong deadly foe
Emptied out his register, said, “Tell ’em it was Crazy Joe”.

One day they blew him down in a clam bar in New York
He could see it coming through the doors as he lifted up his fork
He pushed the table over to protect his family
Then he staggered out into the streets of Little Italy.

Joey, Joey
King of the streets child of clay
Joey, Joey
What made them want to come and blow you away.

Sister Jacqueline and Carmela and mother Mary all did weep
I heard his best friend Frankie say, “He ain’t dead he’s just asleep”
Then I saw the old man’s limousine head back towards the grave
I guess he had to say one last goodbye to the son that he could not save.

The sun turned cold over President Street and the town of the Brooklyn mourned
They said a mass in the old church near the house where he was born
And someday if God’s in heaven overlooking his preserve
I know the men that shot him down will get what they deserve.

Joey, Joey
King of the streets child of clay
Joey, Joey
What made them want to come and blow you away.

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Want more lyrics and songs by Bob Dylan?

Bob Dylan has released many songs over the years besides Joey. Bob Dylan released songs from 1962 to 2006 spanning across albums like Bob Dylan, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, Another Side Of Bob Dylan, The Times They Are A-Changin', Highway 61 Revisited, Bringing All Back Home, Blonde On Blonde, John Wesley Harding, Nashville Skyline, Selfportrait, New Morning, Dylan, Planet Waves, The Basement Tapes, Blood On The Tracks, Desire, Street Legal, Slow Train Coming, Saved, Shot Of Love, Infidels, Empire Burlesque, Knocked Out Loaded, Down In The Groove, Oh Mercy, Under The Red Sky, Good As I Been To You, World Gone Wrong, Time Out Of Mind, Love And Theft, and Modern Times. Decade Lyrics has over lyrics & songs by Bob Dylan.

If you're a fan of 1970s music looking for more songs from 1976 or the 1970s overall, you've come to the right place!

About Lyrics and Joey by Bob Dylan

When you decide to study the lyrics to Joey, you're looking at the words, verses and background chorus from the 1976 song by Bob Dylan. Some of the lyrics to Joey have clear meanings and some contain metaphorical references. Like most songs, only Bob Dylan and their collaborators know the full story behind any of the their songs.

You can understand the lyrics to Joey if you take apart the structure of the words. The word "lyric" itself derives from the Latin word lyricus, with the actual English word lyrics applied to the definition "words set to music" listed in Stainer and Barrett's 1876 Dictionary of Musical Terms. Continuing the chain, the Latin word lyricus derives from the Greek word λυρικός or lyrikós. This somewhat means "poetry accompanied by the lyre" or "words set to music." You can easily see that by looking at the background of the word lyric, that the "lyrics to Joey" means the words set to the music of Joey, or poetry accompanied by the lyre played by Bob Dylan. The singular form "lyric" is still used to mean the complete words to a song. However, the singular form lyric is also commonly used to refer to a specific line (or phrase) within a song's lyrics. Hence, by this analysis of word structure, you could say that the lyric to Joey and the lyrics to Joey are both one and the same thing. None of this talk about the word Lyrics is really relevant to fans of Bob Dylan who came here looking just for the lyrics to Joey, but we feel it is still fun to learn what's behind commonly used words and lyrics in songs.

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