Song Analysis 3 - Storm Clouds
1. Make a copy of the lyrics to the song and enlarge. Annotate these!
2. What is the song about? Describe the scene. What happened before this scene to lead to the moment?
The song is about the girls hitting a rough patch from struggling to live of £2 a week strike pay and being responsible for putting 5,000 men out of work and unemployed. They are singing about the pressure building up on strike as they are are effecting the men and their families and their own families. What happened before this scene to lead up to this moment was Mr Tooley has entered to Dagenham to deal with the strike and has spoken to manager Hopkins, Macer and Hubble, when Tooley asked if Rita O’grady is married to a Ford worker and Macer responds with telling about Eddie O’grady, he then asks how, Tooley asks about the stockpile situation, when he is told 10 thousand Cortina have been made, he then decides to lay off the men because he wants to stop the strike so by stopping both Rita and Eddie’s money, he is hoping this will stop the giving he knows they will struggle for money hence Tooley’s metaphor “If you wanna eat steak, you’ve gotta shoot the horse” meaning that in order to break the strike, he is taking extreme measures to break the strike. The scene feature the girls outside with their strike sign. The men then enter the scene and Stan tells the girls that they have put 5,000 men out of work due to the strike. The scene also features Tooley, Monty and Hopkins in the office where Tooley is looking at Monty’s file where they start discussing Sandra when Hopkins asked ‘which girls are feeling the pinch?’ and when Monty mentions Sandra, Tooley mentions about offering her a promotions work. Other underscoring featured at the O’grady house where Sharon exclaims to Rita that some men came and took the television and Eddie says because they could’nt pay the monthly - showing the family money struggles appearing to the audience, also in this underscoring it show Eddie and Rita arguing over Eddie spending the money from the kitchen pot on his motorbike tyre and Eddie raising his voice in anger, this showing Tooley’s plan working to the audience as the couple start to have disagreements over the struggling for money. Other underscoring is shown in Hopkins house which Tooley is visiting for dinner to celebrate Sandra accepting the promotion contract for the launch of the Cortina, showing Tooley’s plan falling into place of attempting to break the strike to the audience. After this, we also see Lisa coming to visit Rita at her house to tell her about Sandra being offered the promotion contract taking place on Friday in attempt to crack their solidarity and then also Beryl rushing in to tell Rita about Connie fainting and to tell her shes at the hospital asking for Rita, showing more bad news for the factory girls to the audience and showing the girls at their lowest points.
3. What is the purpose of this song?
The purpose of the song is to show the girls hitting their rough patch in the strike and to show the real life struggles of the strike to the audience. The purpose is to show the audience how strong the girls was to continue after the strike giving the huge rough patches they had to face during their lowest points such as living of £2 a week strike pay, the men no longer supporting them since being out of the job due to their strike, being responsible for 5,000 men out of work and 3,000 families unemployed, Connie in hospital. It also showing Tooley’s plan coming into place as he offers Sandra a promotion contract and how he plans to stop both Eddie and Rita’s money in hope this will cause her to go back to work. The purpose is to show all the negative effects of the strike to the audience and how the women overcome these effects and still continued with the strike.
4. Where does the song take place? How does this affect your singing, movement? i.e in a car
The song features various underscoring so takes place in a variety of locations. For example, for the factory girls they are still stood outside of the factory at the picket line with their strike songs and the men come out of the factory and enter the scene to tell the women outside they have closed down Dagenham and put 5,000 men out of work. As a factory girl, I have stood outside of the factory with my strike sign, this affects my movement as I appear cold being stood out striking all day with the women and show this through a tense body posture as people tense their body to give their body warmth when and tug at my coat to represent myself as cold to the audience. Other places the song takes place is in the factory in the office where Tooley is with Monty and Hopkins looking at Monty’s file, Eddie and Rita’s home with their children, Hopkins house with Lisa and Tooley having a celebration dinner to Sandra accepting the promotion contract, Rita house again when Lisa comes to visit to tell Rita about Sandra’s promotion and also Beryl who tells Rita about Connie fainting and being taking to hospital at the acute unit amd also Barbara and Harold Wilson who are in parliament and Tooley who visits to tell Harold they need to bust the strike.
5. Who are you singing to?
As my character I feel I am singing to myself as a thought about reaching this rough patch and sing the lyrics as if my character feels and understands the lyrics and is singing these thoughts out loud because she is singing about herself and the pressure she is under as I feel when singing these lyrics I feel my character is singing to herself. Though I feel I mostly am singing to myself, I also sing towards my audience during different parts of the chorus as if telling the audience as my character pressure is building up whilst directing and projecting this line towards the audience as if telling them this is my thought and feeling of my character. Though feel towards the verse “It ain’t about you, it ain’t bout the law, It’s three thousand families unemployed and poor” I am singing this part directly towards my audience, telling them as my character it ain’t about them or us as people or anyone else, its about those families that are unemployed due to the strike.
6. Who or what are you singing about?
What we are singing about is the obstacles we are facing as factory girls whilst on strike. We are singing about not only ourselves but us all as one facing this problems together. We are singing about the pressure building up as we continue to strike during the negative effects of the men out work, we are singing about ‘down to our last pound’ struggling to live off strike pay and struggling for money, and we are singing about the management during ‘Don’t let the bastards grind you down’ we are talking about ourselves and all of us as factory girls and member of the strike not to let the management grind us down no matter what plans they have to break the strike, to continue fighting and to keep going forward with the strike. We are singing about the 3,000 who are unemployed and poor due to the strike and that it ain’t about the law but it’s about them and that this is one of the effect affecting us at strikers but to still not let the management break the strike.
7. How do you feel during the song? Plot how the emotions change on your lyrics.
How I feel during the start and beginning of the song is weak. I feel weak and hopeless because I am struggling to live off the money and this is making me a weak member of the strike who I didn’t plan to be. I show my weakest point of emotions when the men enter and we are told 5,000 men have been laid off, this is where I show my weakest emotions. I show emotions of guilt, shame as I am a character who feels empathy so as my character, I feel responsible for the ment being laid off work, I feel bad that they have had to suffer the consequences of the strike. My emotions remain at this weak, ashamed and guilty stage until saying ‘Cos Belgium really shit’ where my emotions have now changed because I am thinking back on the image of Belgium and how much of a bad place it is to travel to myself, the guilt feelings have left my thoughts and feelings of my character. During the chorus that follows this, my character find her strength again as she sees the girls around her still remaining strong, I decide to pick myself up as I feel being a weak member of the strike I am letting down my girls, I am a lot more angry towards the end of the chorus rather than weak and upset when singing ‘Don’t let the barstards grind you down’ because I now realise its them who are trying to fight dirty to stop the strike and feel angry at the measure they have gone to to try and break our strike and that we should not quit the strike without a fight. My characters feel angry, strong and determined to continue the strike now and I sing with more angry and passion of emotion from this point until the end of the song.
8. What are the inner/outer feelings of the character in the song?
Inner feelings of my character is shown when the men enter the scene saying that they and 5,000 men have been laid of of work. The inner feeling of my character is that I feel guilty and responsible for being the reason the men are out of work, I feel ashamed they have had this happen to them as a consequence of us as factory girls on strike. I feel sorry for them and also feel the strike isn’t worth it anymore as I know the men need to provide for themselves and their family. I see them all fighting and see this tearing them apart and could’nt feel any more worse as my character watching it happen and feel like this is my fault. Inner feeling is that I am struggling to live on the strike pay and feel the pressure is now become too much for my character and she feels like giving up. Another inner feeling is that when mentioning ‘Belgium’s really shit’ my character’s inner feeling is a bad picture of Belgium covered in litter and this is a thought to myself before singing this lyric. My outer feelings towards the beginning of the song are upset, sad, hopeless and distressed. Outer feelings at the end of the song after ‘Belgiums really shit and onwards, I feel angry at the management (also inner feeling) I feel strong as my character and determined to keep fighting no matter what the management plan is next and how found my strength and feel as my character I must keep fighting and not let the girls down and an inner feeling of watching them and seeing other around me strong has made me think to myself I must continue being strong for them too.
9. What facial expressions will you use to show what your characters are thinking or feeling in the song?
My facial expressions towards the start of the song with be sad and sorrowful and distressed. I will show this through widening my eyes (puppy eyes) to show the expression of upset and hurt. When the men enter I will use facial expressions of upset guilt and shamed. I will do this by looking down on the floor to represent guilt of not being able to look at them because I feel ashamed and will also screw my face up to show my characters upset but also annoyed with herself because of shame. During ‘Belgium’s really shit’ I will use full extension of my mouth when singing this and wide eyes to show my feel enthusiastic about saying this lyrics and exaggerating on saying how bad it is to my audience. After this lyrics and onwards to the end of my song, my character feels strong and determined so my expression will be exaggerated with scrunched eye brows to show my character seriousness on continuing with the strike and also anger towards the management.and slight gritted teeth.
10. What gestures will you use to show what your character is thinking or feeling in the song?
I showed my character’s gestures through body language well to show how my character felt throughout the performance. For example, when the men enter saying they have 5,00 men have been laid off work, I use the gesture of looking down at the floor to show to my audience my character feeling guilty, I also use the gesture of showing my body as very tense, tightening my shoulders, etc to show my character feels uncomfortable around the men as I can see they no longer support us in the strike since they have no been affected and are out of the job and to show I feel to blame and feel ashamed they have been affected by us as striker. Another gesture I use is with our strike signs. At the beginning of our song, my character feels weak, hopeless, like giving up on the strike, I hold the strike sign low and with hardly any strength to show my character hasn’t got the strength in her to lift the strike sign high and this shows to the audience the loss of hope by holding the sign low. But, then towards the end of the song my character fins the strength and determination to continue striking so I show this through strong posture, lifted chin and hold the strike sign with more strength in my arm to show the gesture of my character finding strength in the strike again and holding the sign proudly rather than guilty before at the start of the song because of the men.
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