‘The Girl With the Hungry Eyes’: Pure Hell’s ode to Nancy Spungen
The initial wave of punk that emerged from New York’s underground in the mid-1970s is primarily associated with bands like the New York Dolls, the Ramones, Television and Patti Smith. Yet, one of the most severely overlooked members of the era was Pure Hell, who moved to the city from Philadelphia, keen to immerse themselves in the burgeoning movement.
The band were incredibly influential, cited by Bad Brains as a significant source of inspiration, yet they are often left out of retellings of an iconic era in music history. Bassist Lenny Boles told Dazed, “We were the first black punk band in the world. We were the ones who paid the dues for it, we broke the doors down. We were genuinely the first. And we still get no credit for it.”
Meanwhile, lead vocalist Kenny Gordon asserted, “I don’t want to be remembered just because we were black. I want to be remembered for being a part of the first tier of punk in the ’70s.”
The band’s tenure fizzled out by 1980, frustrated with record labels insisting they make music that was more “funky” and “danceable”, as Boles recalled: “We opted not to get signed”. Musical integrity was more important to Pure Hell than success – the sign of a band with a true punk mentality. After a disagreement with their manager led to their master tapes being taken from them, their only album, Noise Addiction, recorded in 1978, was finally released in 2006.
One of the songs on the album is an ode to Nancy Spungen, the late girlfriend of Sid Vicious, who was found fatally stabbed in her room at the Chelsea Hotel in 1978. Gordon had known Spungen, who also hailed from Philadelphia, from school, although they were reunited through Pure Hell’s friendship with the Sex Pistols’ bassist. The song, ‘The Girl With the Hungry Eyes’, runs for just one minute and 30 seconds, with Gordon recalling his memories of Spungen when she was younger, declaring, “You want it all/ You hate the world,” echoing the destructive lifestyle she lived.
Tragically, Spungen died when she was just 20, with many theories surrounding the cause of her death. From a young age, Spungen exhibited damaging behaviours before being expelled from university, subsequently becoming a groupie, sex worker and part-time music journalist, leading her to meet Vicious on a trip to England. Spungen lived fast, indulging in substance abuse with Vicious, which inevitably led to the pair’s downfall. Upon her death, Vicious claimed, “Nancy always said she’d die before she was 21.”
Around the same time, Pure Hell had opened for Vicious at Max’s Kansas City not long before he died. “We were on the second page of the majority of the tabloids, like New Musical Express, Sounds, and Melody Maker,” Gordon explained. He also stated that Spungen’s death marked the end of an era. “Really, punk died with Nancy’s murder. Everyone was burning the candle from both ends. You had to be extreme to be in those kinds of circles.”
Listen to the song below.
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