Nancy Spungen

Nancy Spungen
File:Nancy Spungen.jpg Nancy Spungen, right, with boyfriend Sid Vicious
Born	(1958-02-27)February 27, 1958 Lower Moreland Township, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	October 12, 1978(1978-10-12) (aged 20) New York City, New York, U.S.A.

Nancy Laura Spungen (February 27, 1958 – October 12, 1978) was the American girlfriend of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious. Spungen has been the subject of controversy among music historians and fans of the Sex Pistols.

Early life

Nancy Spungen was born February 27, 1958 to Frank and Deborah Spungen. The Spungens were a middle class Jewish family in the Huntingdon Valley area of Lower Moreland Township, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. Her father was a businessman and her mother owned a local health food store called The Earth Shop in Jenkintown, PA. She was born a month premature, and suffered from severe cyanosis. As a child she was hyperactive and reportedly exhibited violent behaviour towards her younger sister Susan and her brother David. She is also alleged to have threatened to kill a babysitter and to have attacked her mother with a hammer during an argument. By age 11 she had been expelled from the public school system and was receiving psychotherapy. She reportedly attempted suicide several times and suffered from depression. Her family sent her to various residential facilities for disturbed children. After graduating from Devereux Manor High School at age sixteen, she briefly attended the University of Colorado.

Relationship with Sid Vicious

Spungen left home at age 17 and moved to New York City. She followed bands such as Aerosmith, The New York Dolls and The Ramones. She was also a good friend of Debbie Harry. She later worked as a stripper in New York City, which sometimes involved prostitution. She reportedly moved to London with the express purpose of winning over Jerry Nolan of the New York Dolls and The Heartbreakers but met The Sex Pistols instead. Lead singer Johnny Rotten introduced her to bassist Sid Vicious and they promptly moved in together.

During a rocky 21-month relationship, Spungen and Vicious were addicted to heroin and other drugs. Vicious was already an abuser of multiple drugs before he met Spungen, but many sources claim she introduced him to heroin; other sources claim that he had begun to use speed with his mother at an early age and then got into heroin when Spungen came around.

The tabloids dubbed Spungen "Nauseating Nancy" for reportedly frequent and public displays of drug-fueled verbal abuse and violence. After the Sex Pistols broke up in 1978, Spungen and Vicious moved to the famous Hotel Chelsea in New York City. There, Vicious tried, with limited success, to continue his musical career.

Death

Over the next few months, Vicious and Spungen spiraled into serious drug abuse, punctuated by reports of domestic violence. The end came on October 12, 1978, when Spungen was found sprawled on the bathroom floor of their hotel room clad in a black bra and panties. She had bled to death from a single stab wound to the abdomen, later traced to a knife owned by Vicious. This was reportedly a "007" hunting knife he had obtained after seeing Dee Dee Ramone give one to The Dead Boys' Stiv Bators. Vicious was immediately arrested for murder. There are several theories that Spungen was murdered by someone else, usually said to be one of the two drug dealers who visited the apartment that night, and involving a possible robbery as certain items (including a substantial bankroll) were claimed to be missing from the room. In his book, Pretty Vacant: A History of Punk, Phil Strongman names Spungen's alleged killer as actor and stand-up comic Rockets Redglare. Redglare had delivered 40 capsules of hydromorphone to the couple's room at the Chelsea Hotel the night Nancy was killed.

Also unusual was that Neon Leon had Sid's leather jacket and two gold records in his room. He said he had been given them by Sid for "safe keeping" the night of October 11/12, 1978.

Literary work about Nancy Spungen

• And I Don't Want to Live This Life (Deborah Spungen, Nancy's mother, 1983).

In this book, the title of which is taken from a poem written by Vicious after he allegedly murdered Spungen, Spungen's mother Deborah cited her daughter's medical records and revealed her daughter suffered from paranoid schizophrenia since her early childhood. This has been cited as a possible reason for her reported difficulties with relating socially to others.

• Rats by Veronica Schanoes, in the Interfictions anthology, 2007

This story is a punk rock fairy tale inspired by Spungen's life. The author says:

I wrote "Rats" because I was angry with the way the recent coffee-table histories of punk seem to have no problem demonizing a dead, mentally ill, teenage girl.

Nancy Spungen in pop culture

• The hit song "Butterfly" by Crazy Town references Vicious and Spungen's relationship.
• The song "Jessica" by Dir en grey mentions Vicious and Spungen.
• The song "Ice Cream" by New Young Pony Club also briefly mentions Vicious and Spungen in the lyric, 'fantastic flavored fancies/ sick like Sid and Nancy/ wicked as a joyride jaunt'.
• The song "Back Drop Nancy" by The Gazette features lyrics themed around Spungen.
• The song "New College" by The Dollyrots mentions Vicious and Spungen's relationship.
• The Ramones songs "I Don't Want to Live This Life (Anymore)" and "Love Kills".
• The Joe Strummer song also titled "Love Kills", featured on the Sid & Nancy soundtrack, is about Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen.
• The song "Love Kills" by Kasey Katz is a tribute to Nancy Spungen.
• The Dar Williams song "Alleluia" refers to the film Sid and Nancy.
• The song "Sid Vicious was innocent" by The Exploited.
• The Ministry song "Just One Fix" features a sound clip of Chloe Webb from the film Sid and Nancy. ("Never trust a junkie.")
• The song "Sid & Nancy" by the Russian rock band Lumen also refers to their story.
• VH1 declared the incident one of the most shocking in rock and roll history.
• The song "Sid & Nancy" by the Polish singer Robert Gawlinski
• References to Sid and Nancy appear quite frequently in the anime and manga NANA by Ai Yazawa.
• There are several references to Sid and Nancy in the TV show Gilmore Girls, including the suggestion that Lorelai Gilmore was going to name her (fictional) twin babies Sid and Nancy in the episode Crazy Lazy Hazy Days, the quote "Like I was holed up in the Chelsea with a needle sticking out of my arm screaming 'Sid!' at the top of my lungs" from the episode "Application Anxiety" (both in Season 3), and Paris Gheller explaining to her boyfriend Lane Kim was "Nancy Spungen-ing it" from A Family Matter
• The song "Godspeed" by Anberlin on their album Cities contains references to Spungen's death.
• The song "I Wanna Be A Narc" by Black Randy And The Metrosquad on their album "Pass The Dust, I Think I'm Bowie" contains the lyric, "Now Sid and Nancy think they're in a safe place. They'll soon know I'm still working on the case. I'll get secret keys to the Chelsea Hotel. And all the O.D.s, I'll extradite from Hell. Way down in the dark, I wanna be a Narc."
• Nancy and Sid are portrayed by Lisa Simpson and Nelson Muntz in a Valentine's episode of The Simpsons "Love, Springfieldian Style". One major difference from the actual Sid and Nancy story is that the drugs were replaced with chocolate.
• Spungen's and Vicious' romance was the subject of an off-Broadway play and the 1986 Alex Cox film Sid and Nancy, in which Chloe Webb portrayed Spungen, opposite Gary Oldman as Vicious.
• The song "Horror Business" by The Misfits is a reference to Spungen's death.
• The song called "If I Die Will You Die?" by the canadian punk band SNFU is about Vicious and Spungen's relationship.
• The song "Captain Crash and the Beauty Queen from Mars" by Bon Jovi, which is about an unusual, off beat couple, has the line 'We're Sid and Nancy', followed by other famous couples such as Bonnie and Clyde and Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love.
• In The Sounds song "Riot" are they singing in the bridge "And Sid is not that vicious, he killed his little mistress"
• The song "Sid To Hakuchuumu" ("Sid and Daydreams") by Shiina Ringo is written as one of Sid's daydreams in which Nancy tells him how she feels. The last line translates as, "I forgive you for everything."

Sources

• And I Don't Want to Live This Life by Deborah Spungen

External links

• Nancy Spungen website, with pictures and biography
• A forum for Nancy
• Photos of Nancy's gravestone in King David Cemetery, Bensalem, Pennsylvania

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