Brian Smith song in Stranger Things season 3, alongside the Cars and Stray Cats. One from his early
From Brian's Facebook:
Ain't nothin' stranger: Being a kid in Gentlemen Afterdark, a band I co-founded when I was still a teen, and staring at Alice Cooper's face in the recording studio glass trying to sing this song "Open the Door," and being so fucking terrified because, well, that was Alice Cooper. And Dick Wagner, Alice's songwriter and guitarist wingman (Lou Reed too, natch!), our other producer, beside him, trying to be patient, trying to get me to sing in a way I hated and couldn't. But Alice, he was still drinking then, his ‘Dada’ had come out and vanished, that's how long ago this was, and he was about to sober up for good and enjoy a herculean comeback. Indeed, his mad, articulate storytelling (everything from Dali to Detroit) was as on target as his patience with a pretentious little prat like me. During pre-production he'd sometimes pick me up at my shitty studio apartment with his handler and our band manager and one of my best-ever buds, Brian "Renfield" Nelson (RIP), driving— a classic '70s silver rock-star Rolls leftover from the Coop's Hollywood Vampire days. It had random dents, missing hubcaps and would stall out at lights. Perfect. We'd go up to his house on Camelback Mountain (where he'd hilariously only eat breakfast off his ET tray) or to the studio to record. (Years later, btw, I co-wrote the lead-off song on Alice's Last Temptation album ['94], and then wrote the liner notes to the deluxe reissue of Alice Cooper's Billion Dollar Babies on Rhino.) Back to this record: By a long way I was the worst musician in that band, which featured exceptionally skilled boys Winston A Watson Jr., my big bro Barry Smith, Robin Michael Johnson and Fred Cross. We'd all just moved from Tucson to Phoenix. I was forever embarrassed by the sound of my voice, especially on this. Surprised the Coop and Wagner gave a shit at all and I still feel like I let my band down. So it is stranger still that that song, and that frightened, drugged sound of kid me staring at Alice Cooper through the recording studio glass is now soundtracking a Winona Ryder scene in episode one of Stranger Things season 3. Man, they used the entire damn song in the episode that also features the Cars and the Stray Cats (each much shorter). Thanks to GAD song publishers Fervor Records for the killer action.
