Love Buzz

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"Love Buzz"

Single by Nirvana
from the album Bleach
B-side(s)	"Big Cheese"
Released	November 1988
Format	7"
Recorded	June-September 1988 at Reciprocal Studios, Seattle, Washington
Genre	Industrial / Psychedelic
Label	Sub Pop Records
Producer(s)	Jack Endino
Nirvana singles chronology
	"Love Buzz" (1988)	"Blew" (1989)

"Love Buzz" was the first single released by Nirvana in 1988 on Sub Pop Records, a cover of the band Shocking Blue, whose version released in 1967 didn't make the charts. This single contained two songs from the debut album Bleach. It was a limited release of only 1000 hand numbered 7"s. Several different counterfeit pressings are also in circulation. Many of these counterfeit copies are printed on coloured vinyl, whereas all the originals were on black vinyl. The single contains "Love Buzz", a cover version with slightly different lyrics than the Shocking Blue original and "Big Cheese" on the B-side. The Bleach album version of Love Buzz was mixed differently and is missing a 10-second sound collage introduction put together by Kurt Cobain. "Love Buzz" was later released on the EP Blew.

In 1989 a review by British music magazine Melody Maker the Love Buzz single is described as a "Limited edition of 1000; love songs for the psychotically disturbed".

[edit] Other versions

A "violent" performance of the song can be seen on the 1994 home video Live! Tonight! Sold Out!!. Earlier in the show (not seen on the video), Cobain, drunk, angry and high on cough syrup, smashed the PA system at the club with his guitar, frustrated that it had consistently malfunctioned. (Viewers can see a pallet covering the PA, which was added in case Cobain decided to take a second shot.) Unbeknownst to Cobain, the PA belonged to a friend of the bouncer, who, when Cobain dove into the crowd, decided to exact some revenge. Cobain responded by hitting the bouncer in the head with his guitar, drawing blood.
In a performance in Amsterdam, Dave Grohl sings "Macho macho man! I wanna be a macho man!" after Cobain has an altercation with a cameraman. This is also seen on Live! Tonight! Sold Out!!, but this part is muted out possibly because of copyright reasons.
A rehearsal from 1988 and another live performance from 1990 can both be found on the DVD with the 2004 box set With the Lights Out.
In 1995 "Love Buzz" was used in the film Mad Love.