Sharleen Leahey performs “Who Killed Joey” with Maire and Amy of Virago at the Coalition for Peace Action rally in Princeton, New Jersey in March 2011 to commemorate the eighth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. Sharleen wrote the song for the veterans and mothers who tell us the truth about war.
©2011 by Sharleen Leahey
August Echo Music / BMI
Chorus
Who killed Joey
Do you know who it was
Can you remember
What was the Noble Cause
Who killed Joey
Do you know who did
This awful crime
He was only a kid
Was it the recruiter
Offering college tuition
Who sent a high school boy
On a suicide mission
Was it the reporter
Who failed to analyze
The claims of the president
A steady stream of lies
Was the Iraqi
Who joined the insurgency
To liberate his nation
From the land of the free
Chorus
Was it the Crusader
Who just wanted to be saved
By turning ancient nations
Into mass graves
Was it the Taxpayer
Passively adrift
Toward the ledge of tyrrany
In love with a myth
Was it the contractor
Goin’ for the green
Waving the flag
In the twilight’s
Last gleaming
Chorus
As the flag is folded
Into Joey’s mother’s hands
She stands up
As the mourners chant
“My kid was like a lamb” (she said)
“Sent off to slaughter
Poisoned on lies
And now he’s our martyr”
“For the sake of all children
Warmongers take heed
On the grave of Joey
I’m standing
I’m standing for peace”
On the grave of deceit
We’re standing for peace
On the grave of indifference
We’re standing for peace
On the grave of greed
We’re standing for peace
On the grave of empire
We’re standing
We’re standing for peace
Chorus
Who killed Joey
Do you know who it was
Can you remember
What was the Noble Cause
Who killed Joey
Do you know who did
This awful crime
He was only a kid
