The Neville Brothers, Yellow Moon | Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶

In the 72^nd edition of Throwback Vibez (2024), we recollect and reflect on “Yellow Moon” by The Neville Brothers. 

The vibes, the vibes, those Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶! Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 is a column that celebrates awesome songs from the past.  The records that grace this column are older, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re ancient – no fossils 🦴! All genres of music are welcome. In the 72^nd edition of Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 (2024), we recollect and reflect on “Yellow Moon” performed by The Neville Brothers. 

“Yellow moon, yellow moon, yellow moon / Have you seen that Creole woman?” A song addressed to the moon? Cool 😎! “Yellow Moon” appears as the second track on The Neville Brothers’ gold-certified, 1989 album, Yellow Moon.  The most famous Neville, Aaron Neville, composed and sang lead vocals on “Yellow Moon.” His pen is engaging and entertaining from start to finish. Case in point: “Oh, yellow moon, yellow moon / Why you keep peeping in my window / Do you know something? / Do you know something that I don’t know?” Well, yellow moon, do you?

“Yellow Moon” commences with an electrifying, percussive groove (Cyril Neville). It’s infectious from the onset, helping the song to c-o-o-k.  There’s also sweet saxophone playing early on and throughout by the late, ‘horn man’ of the group, Charles Neville (1938 – 2018). And we can’t leave out Art Neville on the keys (1937 – 2019).  Also making “Yellow Moon” ‘the stuff’ is fabulous guitar riffs and a clean, light, yet potent sound.  Of course, Aaron is huge in delivering the easygoing, expressive, and nuanced vocals. Does the man ever break a sweat? Doesn’t sound like it! He has plenty of questions for the moon, all related to his girl: “Is she hid out with another? / Or is she trying to get back home? / Is she wrapped up in some other’s arms?” Some of the most memorable lyrics recur throughout:

“With your eye so big and shiny

You can see the whole damn land

Yellow moon can you tell me

If the girl’s with another man?”

Also, what about those select moments where the vocals are harmonized? It’s a V-I-B-E. All of “Yellow Moon” is a vibe, period.  Those Neville Brothers were bad, just as Aaron describes in his fascinating 2023 memoir, Tell It Like It Is.

The Neville Brothers // Yellow Moon // UMG Recordings, Inc. // 1989

The Neville Brothers, Yellow Moon: Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 No. 72 (2024) [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; UMG Recordings, Inc.; OpenClipart-Vectors, Speedy McVroom via  Pixabay]