‘Neon Moon’ by Brooks & Dunn and Morgan Wallen - Lyrics & Meaning

One of the undisputed country classics and a karaoke favourite wherever you go, Brooks & Dunn's ‘Neon Moon’ has undergone a fair few chops and changes over the years.

Originally released as part of the legendary duo's debut album, Brand New Man, in 1992, ‘Neon Moon’ has blossomed into one of Brooks & Dunn's defining hits. It's now been certified five times Platinum, and spent two weeks at No. 1 at Country Radio.

In 2019, Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn recruited Kacey Musgraves for a misty, disco-infused rendition of ‘Neon Moon’ as part of the duo's first Reboot project, which also featured A-list reimagined versions of their biggest songs with Luke Combs, Thomas Rhett and more. Kacey's version was certified Platinum in August 2024.

Then, in October 2024, we got the exciting news that Brooks & Dunn were readying Reboot II, with a blockbuster new take on ‘Neon Moon’ with Morgan Wallen included on the tracklist.

Given Morgan Wallen's status as one of the most popular artists in the modern country music landscape, unsurprisingly, the teasers of this revamped version of ‘Neon Moon’ spread across TikTok like wildfire, ahead of its official release on November 15th, 2024.

Prior to the official Reboot II announcement, the ‘Thought You Should Know’ singer-songwriter brought out Brooks & Dunn to perform ‘Neon Moon’ during his 2024 Kansas City, Missouri show. Two years earlier, Morgan Wallen and Ronnie Dunn linked up to perform the hazy heartbreak anthem at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena.

Reboot II was billed as a vastly more experimental album compared to Reboot, which found artists generally sticking to the same composition of the original tracks. However, Morgan Wallen's take on ‘Neon Moon’ feels much closer to the 1992 version than Kacey Musgraves’. Both are infectious, with Kacey infusing moodier, synth-pop and R&B textures into the mix, while Morgan lets the spotlight fall on his captivating drawl as he croons across a traditional-leaning instrumental.

All three versions of ‘Neon Moon’ capture the melancholic, wistful ambience that Ronnie Dunn laces into the lyrics, with the hook an unquestionable earworm, regardless of how it's packaged. It's pretty impressive to think Ronnie had penned ‘Neon Moon’ all by himself before Brooks & Dunn were even founded, with their debut record, Brand New Man, including three of the band's most recognisable hits to date - ‘Neon Moon’, ‘Brand New Man’ and ‘Boot Scootin’ Boogie’.

“When the sun goes down on my side of town

That lonesome feeling comes to my door

And the whole world turns blue

There's a rundown bar 'cross the railroad tracks

I got a table for two way in the back

Where I sit alone and think of losing you”

Throughout ‘Neon Moon’, the protagonist paints a foggy, alcohol-soaked scene in a small dive bar, where he drinks the evenings away in an attempt to get over his heartbreak.

The loneliness of this image is accentuated, both by the fact that the narrator is sitting alone at a table that's set up for two people, and through the description of the bar being out of the way and isolated, located on the other side of a pair of railway tracks.

“I spend most every night

Beneath the light

Of a neon moon”

The gloomy light of the titular ‘Neon Moon’ is the only fleeting comfort the narrator can glean, with the ‘moon’ being a metaphor for the disco lights of the bar he's hiding away in. The fact that it's an artificial, electric ‘moon’ adds to the hollowness of the protagonist's mood, as sitting under the moon and stars is usually a romantic setting.

“Now if you lose your one and only

There's always room here for the lonely

To watch your broken dreams

Dance in and out of the beams

Of a neon moon”

As Ronnie Dunn has outlined when discussing ‘Neon Moon’, he always makes an effort in his songwriting to include a ray of hope that cuts through the gloom, even if it's a song about despair and heartbreak. The narrator portrays the dive bar as a safe haven for lost souls and those who are trying to recover from losing their lover.

He viscerally describes their ‘broken dreams’ about their future spilling out onto the dance-floor, creating the sense that this space is providing catharsis for the broken-hearted.

“I think of two young lovers running wild and free

I close my eyes and sometimes see

You in the shadows of this smoke-filled room

No telling how many tears I've sat here and cried

Or how many lies that I've lied

Telling my poor heart she'll come back someday”

Here, the protagonist again emphasises his feeling of loneliness as he recalls happier times when he and his lover were ‘wild and free’, with no worries or anxieties about their relationship. He confesses that he still sees the ghost of his ex in the smoky bar, underlining just how much he wishes he could spend another evening with her. The narrator has been telling himself she'll run back into his arms one day in the near future, despite knowing deep down that these were always lies.

“Oh, but I'll be alright

As long as there's light

From a neon moon”

Again, we get a glimmer of light filtering through the murky darkness of the dive bar, as the protagonist defiantly claims he'll be fine, as long as he has the comfort of his ‘Neon Moon’.

“Jukebox plays on, drink by drink

And the words of every sad song seem to say what I think

And this hurt inside of me, ain't never gonna end”

The overwhelming message of ‘Neon Moon’ is that this dive bar will act as a permanent refuge with no last call, where there's always one more song and one more drink to enjoy.

The narrator evocatively describes how the lyrics he hears are resonating with him, offering him more catharsis, before he despondently outlines that he fears this anguish will never end. As a result, he'll need all the solace he can get from his ‘Neon Moon’.

During the recording of this new version of ‘Neon Moon’, Morgan Wallen reflected on the importance of striking a balance between paying homage to the original, and putting his own spin on it, “Pretty much whatever vehicle I got into as a kid it was blaring [Brooks & Dunn's] music. It's a little bit intimidating and challenging, and for me, I don't wanna stray too far from what I consider something that's perfect. We added a little bit of flavour to it, but it still keeps a lot of the OG too”.

Ronnie Dunn has delved into the creative process behind ‘Neon Moon’ on a number of occasions. During a conversation with CMT, Dunn recalled how the idea for came about while he was playing with the house band at a bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma, “I was trying to twist it just a hair different and not give it a good old standard two-four beat deal, and that melody just came to me. So I was really thinking of dances with the beat and I still do to this day with most of the stuff that I write. Kix and I both do”.

Brooks explained, “Ronnie was just writing songs for the dance floor and it served our Brooks & Dunn thing really well. If you’re playing that stuff live, they were loving it. It’s a straight-ahead, kind of cool country lyric. It’s also got this sort of cowboy cha-cha thing that people really like to dance to…I’m like ‘OK, it’s a frickin’ hit’”.

Dunn revealed that he makes a conscious effort to give many of the songs he writes a sheen of optimism, “The first thing I learned and was taught when I got into the co-writing thing in Nashville was to always leave just a ray of hope no matter how sad it is, leave just a ray of hope out there at the end of the tunnel”, before stressing how the character in ‘Neon Moon’ finds relief, “[he's] okay as long as he’s sitting under that neon light listening to the music, probably falling in with the crowd”.

“When the sun goes down on my side of town

That lonesome feeling comes to my door

And the whole world turns blue

There's a rundown bar 'cross the railroad tracks

I got a table for two way in the back

Where I sit alone and think of losing you

-

I spend most every night

Beneath the light

Of a neon moon

-

Now if you lose your one and only

There's always room here for the lonely

To watch your broken dreams

Dance in and out of the beams

Of a neon moon

-

I think of two young lovers running wild and free

I close my eyes and sometimes see

You in the shadows of this smoke-filled room

No telling how many tears I've sat here and cried

Or how many lies that I've lied

Telling my poor heart she'll come back someday

-

Oh, but I'll be alright

As long as there's light

From a neon moon

-

Oh, if you lose your one and only

There's always room here for the lonely

To watch your broken dreams

Dance in and out of the beams

Of a neon moon

-

Jukebox plays on, drink by drink

And the words of every sad song seem to say what I think

And this hurt inside of me, ain't never gonna end

-

Oh, but I'll be alright

As long as there's light

From a neon moon

-

Oh, if you lose your one and only

There's always room here for the lonely

To watch your broken dreams

Dance in and out of the beams

Of a neon moon

-

Come watch your broken dreams

Dance in and out of the beams

Of a neon moon

Oh, watch your broken dreams

Dance in and out of the beams

Of a neon moon”

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