Jody Porter: Vocals & Guitar
Britta Phillips: Vocals & Guitar
Mark Browning: Bass
Nino Dmytryszyn: Drums
The band released a few EPs (Exploration Day, In Hollow, and Flight) and one excellent full-length album, 1992's Popdropper.
Porter would go on to play with Fountains of Wayne, while Britta Phillips (perhaps best known as the singing voice of 1980s cartoon Jem) would eventually join Luna and is today one-half of the duo Dean & Britta with Galaxie 500/Luna frontman Dean Wareham, to whom she is married.
Too Late
The Belltower Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
To the other side of the earth,
Never knowing.
So show me,
Show me what they're worth.
Too late,
Too late for me.
Flowed into my head.
They get tied up,
Trying to be seen.
Too late,
Too late for me.
Too late.
They come too late.
The Belltower's song "Too Late" is a melancholic and introspective piece that deals with the feeling of missed opportunities and the futility of trying to change the past. The opening lines, "We were going to carry the weight of the word, / To the other side of the earth, / Never knowing," suggest that the singer and someone else had a grand plan to make a difference in the world, but somehow it never came to fruition. The weight of the word may refer to some kind of knowledge, truth or message that they wanted to bring to others, but they were ultimately unable to do so. The phrase "never knowing" could mean that they didn't know what the outcome would be, or perhaps they were ignorant of some crucial fact that would have enabled them to succeed.
The following lines, "So show me, / Show me what they're worth," seem to be addressed to someone else, possibly the person who shared the plan with the singer. They may be asking to see the value or importance of the things they were trying to accomplish, perhaps in order to find some comfort or consolation in the fact that they have failed. However, the refrain "Too late, / Too late for me" repeats throughout the song, conveying a sense of regret and finality. The repetition of the phrase "Too late" emphasizes the feeling of missed opportunity and the inability to correct one's mistakes.
Line by Line Meaning
We were going to carry the weight of the word,
Our intention was to transport the significance of words to the far end of the world.
To the other side of the earth,
We had plans to take it beyond borders, beyond realms, to places unknown.
Never knowing.
Yet, we were never aware of our negligence and its effects.
So show me,
Reveal to me the actual meaning that those words carry.
Show me what they're worth.
Let me recognize the true value of those words.
Too late,
Unfortunately, it's too late for me now.
Too late for me.
I've waited for too long and missed the opportunity to experience its worth.
If every word unspoken,
Imagine the weight of every unspoken word that we carry around.
Flowed into my head.
All those unsaid words that we have been holding onto, it's overwhelming.
They get tied up,
Those unspoken words get intertwined with one another and intersect in a tangled mess.
Trying to be seen.
They strive to be recognized and understood, just like us.
Too late,
I wish I had realized this earlier.
Too late for me.
But now it's too late for me, the moment has passed me by.
Too late.
Everything has arrived too late, and I can't go back.
They come too late.
It's always too late by the time we realize their worth.
Writer(s): Jimmy Wakely
Contributed by Jake V. Suggest a correction in the comments below.