Love Buzz
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Love Buzz" | ||
|---|---|---|
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| 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 |
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| Genre | Industrial / Psychedelic | |
| Label | Sub Pop Records | |
| Producer(s) | Jack Endino | |
| Nirvana singles chronology | ||
| "Love Buzz" (1988) |
"Blew" (1989) |
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| Back cover | ||
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"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. [1]
The Bleach album version of Love Buzz was mixed slightly differently and is missing a 10-second sound collage introduction put together by Kurt Cobain. "Love Buzz" was later released on the Blew (EP).
In a 1989 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".
In 1995 "Love Buzz" was used in the film Mad Love.
[edit] Live 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 of Love Buzz from 1988 and another live performance from 1990 can both be found on the DVD with the rareties box set With the Lights Out released in 2004
- "Love Buzz" (file info) — play in browser (beta)
- "Love Buzz" by Nirvana
- Problems playing the files? See media help.
[edit] Trivia
The etching on the run-out groove -- "Why Don't You Trade Those Guitars For Shovels?" -- was, according to Krist Novoselic, uttered by his dad when he walked in on an early Nirvana rehearsal. The phrase stuck with the band and was subsequently etched on the run-out groove of their debut single. The etching is many times used to determine whether an encountered Love Buzz single is authentic or not, due to many bootleggers not being aware of this factoid.
The version released on the Bleach album is the same as the single, although it is a different mix. According to producer Jack Endino, the noise collage is not present on the new mix and subsequently not on the album, because Cobain had forgotten to bring the noise tape with him to the mixing session. The recording used all available eight tracks on the tape machine and thus the noises present on the single mix were added manually, with Cobain pressing play on a tape recorder at exactly the right moment on every mixing run of the song, adding a virtual ninth track to the mix. When the time came to remix the song for the Bleach album, Cobain did not have the tape with him.
According to Krist Novoselic, it was initially his idea to add the song to Nirvana's setlist and to release it as their first single.
