Sense of Purpose #1

Dave Sprague was the editor, publisher and for the most part, lone writer for Sense of Purpose #1. He published it from his apartment in New York City in December 1983, and I admire how dogmatically locked-in he was on only the defined contours of the rock music underground he cared about, rather than taking the larger view. I’m reasonably certain that Sprague may have been unaware of and/or unable to access much of it – you have to remember, a lot of fanzine folk got themselves deeply clued-in about far-flung independent music in one of two ways: by being involved in college radio, where new records were everywhere, or by receiving loads of free promos from all corners of the globe after publishing a first issue. This being the first issue of Sense of Purpose and therefore not yet reliant on a promo gravy train, I see Sprague trending a bit toward what was on alternative radio and in middlebrow-ish publications like Trouser Press at the time. 

This includes a bunch of what we then called “imports” from the UK, records available almost completely in sections labeled as such at record stores – Alien Sex Fiend, The Cure, The Smiths and whatnot. He’s also big into LA’s Americana and quote-unquote paisley underground bands, as we shall discuss, and as relayed when we talked about his second issue of Sense of Purpose here. Sprague’s pedantic opening editorial bemoans the synth-pop, dress-up “Rock of the 80s”, finding too-easy targets in the Stray Cats and Billy Idol and positioning his fanzine as standing “against” them. I might have written something similar in 1983, so all is well. I do like and puzzle a bit how this is immediately juxtaposed with a paean to the Sisters of Mercy, whom I also kind of enjoyed myself during the days I rabidly trolled the imports section; I was also really big on Red Lorry Yellow Lorry and Xmal Deutschland my senior year of high school. 

He gets a big talk in with the Dream Syndicate, who’ve recently lost Kendra Smith on bass but still retain Karl Precoda on guitar. The Medicine Show wasn’t out yet, but Steve Wynn is already warning people about how desperately he wants to be popular. He says the band’s way more influenced by Bryan Adams than by Lou Reed at this point, and claims “one band we all think is inspirational/amazing/great on every level is Steely Dan”. Regarding Kendra’s departure earlier that year, Wynn says “When Kendra left, it changed the band a lot – essentially we broke up and reformed, and now a lot of the old stuff sounds dated to me”. Fair enough, I suppose. I wouldn’t see Dream Syndicate live until 1986, with Paul Cutler on guitar, but they played the Days of Wine and Roses material beautifully. I just couldn’t stand Wynn, and everything he said on the mic was pompous, annoying and self-mythologizing. I can see in this interview that this is just where he was at for a few years; he thankfully mellowed with age, as one does.

The talk with Green on Red is good as well, albeit with much ado made about Dan Stuart’s legendary alcohol intake. There’s a Cleveland fixation in this issue and in its follow-up that makes me wonder if that’s maybe where Sprague was from originally. He touts a Cle band called The Wombats, and a fellow writer named Larry Smiley delves deeply into Brian Sands. Why not Evie Sands? Bobby Sands? Cleveland, that’s why. And speaking of Cleveland, Sprague drags up something I feel like I once knew, but then completely forgot – that post-Kid Congo Cramps guitarist “Ike Knox” was actually Mike Metoff from The Pagans! Sprague also goes unnecessarily overboard on The Cramps’ new Smell of Female EP, as many of us did at the time, because it was the first new Cramps vinyl in a long while, and despite it being live and mediocre, was felt to be much-needed. I’m sure I haven’t listened to it in over thirty years.