I played this song while a afternoon fill-in DJ for the late Jerry Bledsoe on WWRL AM 1600 radio, New York City, the original Black American music station in the nation, circa 1983 after doing the 2AM – 6 AM shift on North Haven, Connecticut’s WKCI/KC101FM. I really never knew what this song was about until now – domestic violence, which they did not have a name for back then. Songs come and go sometimes when you are a radio personality. I guess I did not have time to analyze every lyric and message. Sometimes you just like the “sound” of the hook of a hit record, it seems to topically fit your personal experiences and it sticks.
“Too Late” by Junior is on par with and, in my mind, the follow-up to the SMASH hit, “Mama Used to Say”, IMO.
I am humbled and shocked by my naivete` not originally knowing what this song was about. Until a few minutes ago, I thought it was about unrequited love and the breaking up of two lovers! When I heard it in my musical jukebox mind and found it finally on YouTube, it was always about her being “too late” because I have moved-on to another relationship. Yeah, Right! As-if I always had that control, lol.
That was what I was all about in the early 1980s. If I’d really listened to the vamp, “I don’t have to stay with you, I can take the kids and go” I might have gleaned a more clean analysis. Such is life.
I am blown away that this song was so far ahead of its time, preceding the “OJ Simpson trial” and all of the ancillary offshoots that precipitated the lame and unecessary reality television of today that has contributed to the dumbing-down of America that now permeates every aspect of society, from how people drive their cars to our manners and morality. I wonder now, was this Junior’s experience, growing up?
I could/can never tolerate when a nice-looking lady told me her man “beat her up”. How cowardly! And I always say, “Just leave him!” Yet, curiously, in most cases they made excuses not to do so! WTF? If someone I was living with was violent, it would not take me a second heartbeat thought to get the f*** out! Yet, many women seem to think differently regarding this, despite the physical abuse and stay upon a bullshit excuse.
**PICKHITT: This can become an anthem for the “MeToo” movement.
“When he comes home intoxicated from the club
All the kids they go and snuggle up to mom
He starts shoutin’ again, and they start runnin’ again
This ain’t no life for them to lead
In her mind she knows she has to let him go
In the children’s eyes she sees the fear inside
How does she tell him, he won’t take nothin’
This ain’t no life for them to lead
Too late, too late, baby, bye-bye
Now’s my time to go
Too late, too late, baby, bye-bye
Now’s my time to go
In the morning when he wakes up from the couch
Not recallin’ what had happened the night before
He starts askin’ questions, he don’t get no answers
What the hell’s goin’ on in here
Too late, too late, baby, bye-bye
Now’s my time to go
Too late, too late, baby, bye-bye
Now’s my time to go
Too late, too late, baby, bye-bye
Now’s my time to go
Too late, too late, baby, bye-bye
Now’s my time to
She starts saying she can’t take it no more
When he comes home he always beats her to the floor
This old line she’s givin’, hey, about them leavin’
He can’t take it at all
But it’s too late, too late, baby, bye-bye
Now’s my time to go
Too late, too late, baby, bye-bye (I just got to let you know)
Now’s my time to go (Yeah, yeah)
Too late, too late, baby, bye-bye
Now’s my time to go
Too late, too late, baby, bye-bye (Bye-bye)
Now’s my time to
Too late (Too late), too late, baby, bye-bye (Too late, yeah)
Now’s my time to go (I don’t want to be around you)
Too late, too late (I just got to take the kids and go), baby, bye-bye (Oh, no)
Now’s my time to go…”
Comment please and Take GOOD care.
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