'Noah' by Megan Moroney – Lyrics & Meaning

Upon arriving at the mid-point of Megan Morney's sophomore record, Am I Okay?, you'll be sweetly swept away by a little diddy called 'Noah.'

In a rare showing of relative levity, the Georgia hitmaker takes some serious inspiration from two of her favorite musical icons for this track: Kacey Musgraves and Taylor Swift. If you listen through her discography thus far, you can hear the undeniable influences of these two female powerhouses, but none ring quite so clear as 'Noah.'

Essentially taking a page directly out of Swift's own sophomore project, Fearless, Moroney's 2024 offering sounds like the sister song to Swift's beloved fan-favorite, 'Hey Stephen.' However, while it's well known that Swift's 2008 hit is about Love & Theft's Stephen Barker Liles, little is yet known about who this Noah character is based on.

With her trusty producer Kristian Bush, one half of award-winning country duo Sugarland, behind the soundboard, 'Noah' takes on an undeniably country sound.

Featuring a smattering of organic, acoustic instrumentation, you can hear all the classic country elements at play here, from the acoustic guitar and steady drum beat, to the twangy banjo and charming mandolin.

Written alongside some of the genre's leading female tunesmiths, including Connie Harrington, Jessi Alexander and ACM Songwriter of the Year winner Jessie Jo Dillon, 'Noah' is a sweet mid-tempo serenade that finds Moroney opining on a lost love and what could have been.

"Remember how we’d skip class
We were all that and in love
The king to my prom queen
Voted most likely to make-out
That was us
I remember you saying I’d sound good with your last name
We were counting on forever ’til forever never came"

Looking back on her young love and its humble beginnings, Moroney takes Noah – and herself – back through some of the highlights of their relationship.

The pair were the talk of the schoolyard, widely known to be madly in love and voted most likely to succeed romantically. Intoxicatingly in love, they had already started planning on what life would be like when they were married and all of the wonderful things they would get to experience together as they ended up happily ever after.

However, with the last line of the first chorus, we quickly come to understand that things didn't really pan out the way they had hoped as "forever never came."

"Noah, did you know at night I think of you and me?
You’re everywhere inside my head
You’re always in my dreams
And all the girls they want you
But never quite like me
Noah, do you think about me?"

Addressing him directly, she pointedly asks Noah if he thinks of her as much as she does of him, managing to keep her up all night going through the "what ifs" and "what could have beens."

Perhaps it was right person, wrong time or some cosmic force that drew them apart, but regardless, Moroney has been deeply effected even years later by their split.

Ever present in her mind and even taking over her dreams every night, we realize that this wasn't simply another relationship that just fizzled out but something much more meaningful. While everyone may be pining after Noah and wanting to be the prize on his arm, she underlines that none of the other girls can come close to caring for him and loving him as much as she does, even still.

"Did you get the tattoo you always wanted on your arm?
Is the Chevy still running?
Do you still work on your daddy’s farm?
Are you still sneaking cigarettes?
Do you still play my guitar?
And when you hear 'Record Year'
Do you still feel my beating heart?"

After all this time, Moroney has so many questions and so much she wishes to know about Noah. Since she hasn't been able to experience forever with him, she doesn't know if ever got that tattoo he wanted or if that dream truck of his is still running, but she'd do anything to catch up on all the little things she's missed.

More than anything, she's desperately left wondering, similar to what she asked in the chorus, if Noah is ever left thinking about her. Still the owner of her old, beat up guitar that he surely played her countless songs on, Moroney asks if their song still makes him think of her. That being Eric Church's 2015 hit 'Record Year.'

"Too young to be drinking cheap red wine
I was yours and you took up all my time
Call it right, call it wrong
Bet you didn’t think you’d end up in a song"

The first part of her two-part bridge that screams the genius of Taylor Swift's masterful bridges, Moroney works double time as she puts it all out on the table.

Acknowledging that they were probably too young for the love they shared, she admits that no matter if it was right or wrong, she was his to keep... even though he clearly let her slip through his fingers.

"It’s more problematic than it is innocent and sweet
You’re more like a secret I wish I didn’t have to keep
And I bet by now you found somebody new, I did too
But when I lie down next to him sometimes I’d rather be with you"

For the second part of the bridge, things take a bit of a turn, though, as she shares that their relationship, no matter how she likes to remember it, was more problematic than it was innocent.

Realizing that may it wasn't such the fairytale love story that she would've liked to believe, she notes that their relationship felt more like a secret that she had to keep rather than a trophy she was able to show off.

Going back to the same old mental games, though, Moroney says that she's sure Noah has found a new girl to call his by now and, luckily, she's found somebody to fill the void, too... even though sometimes she finds herself wishing that it was Noah instead.

At the end of the day, she'll always have a special place in her heart for the larger-than-life love that could've – and perhaps should've – been.

"Noah, you should know at night I think of you and me
You’re everywhere inside my head, you’re always in my dreams
And all the girls they want you but never quite like me
Noah, do you think about me?"

As we mentioned before, Megan Moroney hasn't shared the finer details regarding 'Noah' and its inspiration, though she has briefly touched on the making of and inspiration behind her sophomore effort.

“After putting Lucky out and getting to a point where my fans and I know each other so much better, I felt like I could open up and discuss things I’ve never talked about in my music before,” she explained in a statement. “Sometimes it almost feels like oversharing, but I feel like I have a responsibility to all the people who send me DMs or talk to me at shows and tell me how my songs helped them through a breakup or a bad time in their lives. If I can write about my heartbreak and make someone else feel like there’s a way out, then of course I’m going to keep doing that."

She adds: “Going into making this record, I was getting a lot of outside opinions on what my second album should be. After a while I realized I just needed to stay true to how I started writing songs when I was 19, and then focus on making music that sonically supports the stories I’m telling. I did my best to block out all that outside noise, and just lead with honesty the whole way through."

In the end, she offers, “I wanted to capture what life feels like in your 20s, where one minute you’re sad about an ex and the next you’re just having fun with your friends and couldn’t care less. My emotions can be all over the place, and I want my songs to make people feel like they have permission to be messy too.”

Remember how we’d skip class
We were all that and in love
The king to my prom queen
Voted most likely to make-out
That was us
I remember you saying I’d sound good with your last name
We were counting on forever ’til forever never came

Noah, did you know at night I think of you and me?
You’re everywhere inside my head
You’re always in my dreams
And all the girls they want you
But never quite like me
Noah, do you think about me?

Did you get the tattoo you always wanted on your arm?
Is the Chevy still running?
Do you still work on your daddy’s farm?
Are you still sneaking cigarettes?
Do you still play my guitar?
And when you hear 'Record Year'
Do you still feel my beating heart?

Noah, did you know at night I think of you and me?
You’re everywhere inside my head
You’re always in my dreams
And all the girls they want you
But never quite like me
Noah, do you think about me?

Too young to be drinking cheap red wine
I was yours and you took up all my time
Call it right, call it wrong
Bet you didn’t think you’d end up in a song

It’s more problematic than it is innocent and sweet
You’re more like a secret I wish I didn’t have to keep
And I bet by now you found somebody new, I did too
But when I lie down next to him sometimes I’d rather be with you

Noah, you should know at night I think of you and me
You’re everywhere inside my head, you’re always in my dreams
And all the girls they want you but never quite like me
Noah, do you think about me?

Too young to be drinking cheap red wine
I was yours and you took up all my time
Call it right, call it wrong
Bet you didn’t think you’d end up in a song
And I wrote you this song

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