The Carrie Nations are a fictitious all-girl rock 'n roll trio featured in the 1970 Russ Meyer cult film Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. In the film, the band goes to Hollywood in order to try to achieve commercial success, only to get sucked into the seedy underbelly of the entertainment industry. Prior to Hollywood, the band's name was The Kelly Affair, but teen rock mogul Ronnie "Z-Man" Barzell hated the name and changed it without the knowledge or consent of the girls or their manager, Harris.
The line-up of the band consisted of Kelly McNamara on vocals and guitar, Casey Anderson on bass and Petronella "Pet" Danforth on drums. Both Casey and Pet contributed strong backup vocals for Kelly. Their name is an ironic play on the name of temperance advocate Carrie Nation. Supposedly, they hit it big on American radio with their number one hit "In The Long Run", followed by "Look On Up At The Bottom." Other songs include: "Find It," "Come With The Gentle People," and "Sweet Talking Candyman." An additional song titled "Once I Had You" appeared on the soundtrack, but was not used in the finished cut of the film.
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The sound of the band leaned toward the psychedelic soul of the late 1960s, although the six Carrie Nations songs on the soundtrack have a variety of stylings.
The first song performed in the film is "Find It", a frantic number that the girls play at a school dance. The lyrics deal with longing and the need to find a niche in the world, which is what the band is doing at the beginning of the film. The song has a hard rock edge to it, with a distorted guitar sound, an intricate bassline, and a heavy drum beat. The aggressive nature of the song and the stripped-down instrumentation give this number a quality that foreshadows punk rock by a number of years, while the funky bass brings a melodic soul element. The vocals are very urgent and high pitched.
"Come With the Gentle People" is featured in a montage that shows the band migrating to Hollywood and incorporates a strong vocal harmony. Lyrically, it suggests ideals of peace and love that were in line with the 1960s. Unlike the first number, "Come With the Gentle People" features a prominent horn section, which is a mystery because none of the musicians in the Carrie Nations are ever depicted playing horns.
The song that breaks the band to Ronnie Barzell is "Sweet Talkin' Candyman", which the girls perform impromptu at a party at the request of Barzell. The song is another uptempo number in which the narrator reveals that her first love affair was with a man who took advantage of her naivete. This is another song that sticks mainly with the actual lineup of the Carrie Nations, with guitar, bass, drums, and vocals being the prominent elements.
"In the Long Run" is a winsome ballad type song that is supposedly the big radio hit that the band achieves under the direction of Ronnie Barzell. Lyrically it suggests disillusionment with the "hippie" themes of "Come With the Gentle People"; a campy line in the song laments "you spend countless hours talking to flowers who can't even talk back to you." This is another song that features the mysterious prominent horn section; it is even more bizarre in this number because the Carrie Nations are shown performing it live on stage in the film, yet no horn players can be seen.
The final Carrie Nations number heard in the film is "Look On Up At The Bottom", which reflects the band at what it thinks is its lowest point. Despite their success, the members of the band have found themselves deceived and damaged by the cruel attitudes of their newfound Hollywood circle. Musically the number is mid-tempo with a prominent funky guitar. The Los Angeles band Redd Kross were one of the first bands to acknowledge the genius of the music in this film, covering the song on their album Born Innocent in 1982.
"Once I Had You", the only other Carrie Nations song, is a soft, mellow ballad that appeared on the original soundtrack release in 1970 but was left off the most recent soundtrack reissue from 2003. Lyrically it shares the same theme of loss as "Look On Up At The Bottom", which could be the reason it was left out of the film.
At the time of their supposed rise to fame, 1970, the idea of an all-female group didn't have much precedence. There were "girl groups" before them that featured one or more female vocalists, but rarely a rock band where all of the musicians and songwriters involved were female, too. The concept was pioneered in the real world by two all-female acts: Goldie & the Gingerbreads, a rock quartet who performed in the mid-60s, and Fanny, another all-female rock quartet who were more contemporary to the Carrie Nations. Even though they were fictitious, The concept of the Carrie Nations was groundbreaking, especially since the band was supposed to have made a huge impression on the charts.
If they had been a real band instead of a fictitious group in a movie, their history would be rather notorious because of two sensational incidents.
After the Carrie Nations gained fame and success, they appeared on a television program to promote their album "Look On Up At The Bottom". In a bold move, Petronella suggested that instead of a song from the album, they perform "Find It" as a veiled acknowledgment of their former manager, Harris Allsworth. Much to everyone's surprise, Harris, who had been lurking in the wings, decided to climb into the rafters of the soundstage and attempted suicide by leaping onto the stage, a perilous drop. His body fell right in front of the band as they performed. The cameramen kept rolling and filmed the whole incident as the bloodied Harris, who did not die, was taken away by medics.
Later, the eccentric Barzell, who was known for his drug fueled parties, assembled a small group of four individuals together for a private party. Joining him were Anderson; her newfound lesbian lover, Roxanne; and male gigolo Lance Rocke, whom Barzell wanted as his own lover. The four of them donned bizarre costumes and took a large amount of drugs, at which point Barzell went berserk, decapitating Rocke with a sword. Barzell then chased his servant, who witnessed the murder, down to the beach, where he impaled the man with the sword. Returning to the house, Barzell retrieved a gun, which he used to murder Roxanne by firing it directly into her open mouth. Anderson, who had been hiding in fear of her life, placed a frantic phone call to Kelly, Pet, Harris, and Pet's fiance Harrison, but Barzell found her and shot her in the head. Kelly and the others arrived too late, and found a deranged Barzell threatening them with the gun. Although he managed to wound Petronella, the foursome managed to subdue him and killed him in self-defense. This incident alone, which mirrored the murders masterminded by Charles Manson, would have drawn worldwide attention to the Carrie Nations, particular since Anderson was the daughter of a well-known US Senator.
The soundtrack for Beyond the Valley of the Dolls was written chiefly by Stu Phillips, including the songs performed by The Carrie Nations. None of the actresses who portrayed The Carrie Nations were real musicians, and under the direction of Russ Meyer, they received music lessons in order to make their performances more realistic on screen. The actual lead vocals on The Carrie Nations' recordings are not those of actress Dolly Read's but rather those of Lynn Carey, perhaps best known for her solo work and work with Mama Lion. Additional vocals were provided by Barbara Robison. However, due to contractual reasons Lynn Carey could not appear on the original LP soundtrack, and the songs were re-recorded and released with Amy Rushes on vocals.
In 2003, the soundtrack for Beyond the Valley of the Dolls was reissued on CD featuring both versions of The Carrie Nations' songs; those with vocals by Amy Rushes and the original versions featuring Lynn Carey.