glass beach & blood rivers tells a story about two genderqueer people running away from their unsupportive families in a desperate attempt to get away from it all. The two people’s relationship is shown to be storied and affectionate, a beautiful representation of a queer friendship/relationship. This story is told from the perspective of one of them comforting the other, reassuring them that they aren’t a burden and urging them to stay alive.
This song covers alot, and gives us details about the life of the main character from a few of Glass Beach’s other songs, “yoshi’s island” and “bedroom community”. We learn through the second verse as the singer, who I’m going to call “Glass”, comforts the other person, who I’m going to name “Beach”, that Beach’s parents were verbally abusive to them. Despite this, Beach believed that they treated them this way out of love.
Later in the song, Glass tells Beach about the first time they ran away. They stopped taking calls, and drove away to nowhere in particular, just anywhere but where they were. At one point, someone named Yuki told them to talk their problems through with their family, rather than running from them.
Full song lyrics:
i promise you’re not wasting
anybody’s time
and all the things they’ve told you
are so god damn rough, i understand
they said your friends will hurt you
and you’re friends don’t really care
you told me you’re their daughter
and they treat you this way just to keep you safe.
so please listen clearly, i love you dearly
it hurts to see you so torn apart like this
another sleepless night
to laugh about the times we tried to die
with heavy eyes
i’ll stay awake with you
and we’ll keep us alive
til the morning comes
in here
you’ll be ok
and when your heart breaks
i’ll be beside you
so please
stay here with me
breathe in like waves on a glass beach
I stopped taking calls for the first time then I cut off my phone line
and took the highway one for nowhere south
when Yuki said i should just call up family
and tell them how i felt
no one who loves you should make you feel so unsafe
no no one who loves you should make you feel alone
in here
you’ll be ok
and when your heart breaks
i’ll be beside you
so please
stay here with me
breathe in like waves
on a glass beach
blood in your veins,
the blood on your hands
so stop it, you’re fucking hurting her
can we forget about the places that we should be?
we don’t have to go home today.
i’ll sleep on a million couches,
if we have to, to keep us both safe.
until we can take back
the years they’ve stolen from us
we’ll always live like we’re
hopeless kids.
but when
we’re with all our friends
can we just pretend
that no one can hurt us?
cause hey,
i love you, ok?
it’s so hard to say
that i fucking need you too
tonight
when they close their eyes
look up to the sky
and climb up the moonlight
it’s ours
the moon and the stars
they’ll forget who we were
and we’ll be together again.
sleep til the sun sets
sleep til the sun sets
sleep til the sun sets
the summer sun sets.
