“So Long, Prison Boy”: “Chelsea” & The Gothicism of Nancy Spudgen

By Dorian Steele

“Chelsea” by Phoebe Bridgers is a haunting melody narrated by the ghost of Nancy Spudgen, murdered by her partner Sid Vicious of the Sex Pistols in 1978. Vicious and Spudgen were known for their mutual addiction to alcohol, heroin, and the toxicity they instigated in one another. Their relationship had an addictive quality for the two of them and the public. Nancy and Sid brought out the worst in one another, yet the two of them seemed to revel in the chaos. Consequently, Nancy and Sid became the darlings of the punk scene as constant sources of gossip and edgy appearances. The relationship received even more press and reached its finale in the Hotel Chelsea after Nancy died of a stab wound in the abdomen. Vicious was arrested for second-degree murder, pleaded innocent, and his record label released him on a 25,000 dollar bail. “Chelsea” is a reflection of the toxicity between the couple and the public attention they received. On her debut album Stranger in the Alps, Phoebe stated the album frequently returned to “the obsession of how somebody could kill another person” (“On the Rise: Phoebe Bridgers). “Chelsea” certainly fits the bill. The poetics and melody are layered with addiction, abuse, and the supernatural: literal and metaphorical hauntings.

I didn’t think of this song as Gothic until I learned it illustrated Spudgen’s tragic death. Before I thought it was a love song, albeit melancholy. I found this song driving home late one night after listening to Phoebe’s Tiny Desk concert. She introduced her song “Killer” with a small laugh,  “this is a song about murder” (9:06-9:09). Since then I’ve been hyper-aware of Bridger’s violent, yet tender, imagery is hidden behind her lulling vocals, which inspired me to look further into “Chelsea”. I still hold to the fact that it’s a love song, but one conflating love, sex, and death: a keystone to Gothic relationships. The lyric, “Because I’ve fallen, yes, I’ve fallen right into the love I’ve found / Long before I reach one hundred, I’ll have fallen to the ground” (2:10-2:28) draws attention to the detrimental and consuming nature of their relationship, paired with Nancy’s suicidal mindset. Nancy often stated she couldn’t see herself living past 21, much less 100. Nancy died when she was only 19, and the lyric “I’ll have fallen to the ground” evokes a chilling image of her young body on the Chelsea floor. Additionally, the verb “falling” describes Nancy’s relationship with Vicious, equating their love with her demise and bleak philosophy.

I think the most Gothic aspect of this song is Nancy’s haunting, tethering her to the tragedy history will never let die. The song begins by illustrating Sid’s extreme addiction, self-destruction, and Nancy’s enablement of those behaviors, “for a chemical imbalance, you sure know how to ride a train” (0:18-0:26). When asked to explain this lyric Bridgers tweeted, “even though you have no personality other than your drug addiction you are hot and cool”. Nancy’s perception of Sid was a ticket to fame, drugs, and fun along the way. In articles about her life, it was stated Nancy would have ended up with a rock star if it was Vicious or not as she craved their dizzying lifestyle. Nancy met Sid because she was the Sex Pistol’s dealer, and their growing fame did nothing but draw her closer to the band. Even after Nancy’s death, Sid cannot break away from the relationship they cultivated, “There is no distraction that can make me disappear / No, there’s nothin’ that won’t remind you I will always be right here” (1:09-1:25). Both chilling and tender, this line sports a double meaning of haunting and reassurance. Once again, Spudgen and Vicious’ relationship is suspended by an inevitable, immature death, continued by Nancy’s ghost.

This song reminds me of how Shirley Jackson and William Faulkner grapple with the past through violence and mortality. In perhaps my favorite lyric “And for generations, they’ll romance us, make us more / Or much less than ever was before, the Chelsea and the floor” (2:31-2:45), Bridgers illustrates the distortion of their relationship after Nancy’s death. Critics simultaneously ignored their abusive nature, twisting them into a groupie superstar fairytale or tearing them into nothing but violent addicts. The Gothic adores spectacles such as this. Jackson’s personification of the town as a mob of harmful gossip and delusion functioned as an antagonist, a mirror into the societal detriment alongside the dimension of the Blackwoods. It proposes that normalcy is not as far from monstrosity as we believe.

I’ve included a playlist of songs containing a similar essence or story to Bridgers’ “Chelsea”. Though not all the songs are Gothic, they have the same melancholy of horrific love, addiction, and self-destruction. I think there’s courage in art that reflects and projects the most difficult cycles to break, romantic, physical, or psychological. To create something beautiful and vulnerable and exposed from our ugliest bits.