Isn't It Romantic

The other day I heard a misguided youth refer to her girlfriend's relationship being like Sid and Nancy. I immediately thought she meant that they were strung out and bad news but she didn't she went on to say how perfect they were for each other and how punk rock they were. I then moved out of ear shot and shook my head.




This description made me wonder if if she even knew that Sid Vicious most likely murdered his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen? He was never found guilty because he did what any smart junkie would do; he O.D. After all it's better to be dead than do without one's heroin.



So how do a talentless wanker and a skanky groupie become an image of romance? On a punk rock level they do look damn cool together, he with his spiky, jet black hair, comical sneer and his keen fashion sense and her with the bleached blond hair, heavily made up face and torn fishnet stockings do conjure up the archetypes of the era.



Of course the idea might be the attraction to youth, a couple who never got old, died tragically, died violently died stupidly barely similar but totally different than say Romeo and Juliet and all their ill fated, literary contemporaries. Still I guess the iconographic images persist over what was real; hell they even made a movie about them starring Gary Oldman called "Sid and Nancy". They are in fact a very romantic ideal in the whole rock n' roll mythology but let's face it if they weren't famous nobody would have ever known or cared.

I'm now beginning to think that maybe we need a new rock couple to explode upon us in a gruesome rose of death and glorious exposition of pop culture beauty.