About the Song

Track: Beaumont

Length: 3:27

Album: Trouble in Mind (2008)

Artist: Hayes Carll

Songwriters: Hayes Carll

Favorite part:

“And the way you looked up at me

Made me think I had a chance”

Here’s Why I Love It

There’s no other way to say it, really. When I listen to this song, it gives me chills. The song feels like an entire movie could be made about it. Fuck, it’s so good.

I have no clue if this song is autobiographical, but it has enough emotional resonance to feel like it could be. I don’t even want to waste time trying to assume or pontificate like I know. But what does it matter? It’s a great story about unrequited love. Or is it? It feels and reads like it, but there’s something that makes me feel like the story doesn’t end when the song ends. It could be, but it could also just be the first act. Or maybe that’s me willin’ a happier ending?

Any time a song has one painfully true line in it, it fucks me up pretty good. This song has a few, but all great stories do. And by the way, a painfully written line isn’t just the writing—it combines cadence, tone, and placement within the context of the story (which is why it’s subtle and rare). That’s why those lines land like an a-bomb on your emotional state. Just take the line shared above, it hits so hard. Every human on earth has felt that at some point—a look that felt more than it was, maybe it is, can’t be, wants to be, or whatever. I don’t know, but at the same time, you know exactly what Carll is talking about. Or take the way the song starts, “I saw you leanin’ on a memory / With your back turned to the coward.” You’d be hard pressed to find a more engaging opening line. It just draws you right in. Or what would technically be part of the chorus: “I could not wait forever, babe / I hope you understand.” More pain, more truth, more resonance.

Oh right, and Hayes Carll? A Texas-based troubadour in the vein of Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark. A tough path to walk, but these guys write/wrote stories, not songs. As is evident in this song.

Read the Lyrics

Listen the the Song

*This article is part of the ongoing Lyrics I Love series: short interpretations of the meaning and story behind one song with lyrics that move me.