Songfacts®:

• This 11-minute number is about the New York gangster Joey Gallo, who was gunned down by a rival at a restaurant in New York City. Dylan's song is a highly sensationalized account of Gallo's life.
• A number of the songs on Desire, including this one, were co-written by the songwriter/theater director Jacques Levy, who had co-written the Byrds song "Chestnut Mare." Levy also acted as stage manager on Dylan's 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue.
• This song generated controversy as it was thought that it glorified the violent activities of Gallo and it took liberties with the truth. Dylan responded to these accusations in a 2009 interview published on his website: "Jacques Levy wrote the words. Jacques had a theatrical mind and he wrote a lot of plays. So the song might have been theater of the mind. I just sang it. Some say Davy Crockett takes a lot of liberties with the truth and Billy the Kid too – FDR in Trinidad. Have you ever heard that?"
• The 1989 Dylan & the Dead album includes a live performance of "Joey" recorded by Dylan and the Grateful Dead at Sullivan Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts, on July 4, 1987.