No Sid, Just Nancy.

                                                        

If Courtney can get love, so can Nancy.

The toxic relationship between Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen is common pop culture knowledge. In large part, the relationship is what helped cement the Sex Pistols as the punk icons they are today. Especially in the case of Sid. As for Nancy, she’s basically the equivalent of Yoko to The Beatles. Hardcore Pistols fans see her as the cancer that ruined the band. I’m not a huge fan a Nancy myself, but I think she’s been dehumanized beyond belief. I get it, she’s done some pretty wild and distasteful things - but in all fairness so has Sid; and he’s worshiped for it. So I’m going to give Nancy a fair shake, whether you thinks she’s worthy of one or not.

Young Nancy Spungen was born in Philadelphia. Pennsylvania on February 27th 1958 to Franklin and Deborah Spungen. Straight out of womb Nancy was given a hard time as she was choked by her umbilical cord and almost didn’t make it. Things didn’t get any easier as her parents noted that she cried often and had over the top tantrums. As she grew older Nancy scored incredibly high on an IQ test at 5 and was able to skip to grade three. She had little friends during her elementary years. Nancy continued to display violent behavior throughout her youth, abusing her younger sister and threatening to kill her psychiatrist for suggesting she acted out for attention. Her parents became so weary of her behavior that they sent her away to a therapeutic boarding school; which she ran away from and attempted suicide. At 15 she was diagnosed with schizophrenia.

           

After raising so much hell (which includes getting banished from Colorado and needing her father’s assistance) to avoid harsher legal punishments, Nancy dropped out of college. Over the underground scene in NYC, she caught a flight to England (she earned the money from stripping and prostituting) during the height of the punk scene. She was determined to get in with the bands (meaning she wanted to fuck the shit out of first rocker that gave her the chance). Funny enough, she wanted Jerry Nolan of the American punk band The Dolls, but ended up pursuing the Sex Pistols instead. After Johnny Rotten dubbed her, she went for the next best thing - Sid. Rumor has it she was his first and thus birthed the tragic romance we all know as Sid and Nancy. 

Fast forward 19 months to December 12th 1978 - after the broken home, after the short debauched adulthood, and after the Pistols it all ends abruptly. Nancy is no more. She succumbs to single stab to the abdomen, slumped under a bathroom sink. The culprit is widely believed to be Sid as the knife belonged to him. You would think after the long, hard fucked up life Nancy lead, she would get a shroud of respect in death, but no. She’s hated by the very group she lived for. Be mad about it but, had Nancy never flown to England, Sid would not be revered as the punk god he is known as today. She was vital in cementing the image of the Sex Pistols. I mean, she’s the equivalent of a punk rock martyr dammit. Free spirited, never held back by anything or anyone and she stood firm in her punk rock ways. Despite the odds consistently being stacked against her, being rejected everywhere else - she was welcomed by the punk community with open arms, and made sure no one would forget it.

Remember that the next time you shit on Nancy.