Love Buzz

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“Love Buzz”
“Love Buzz” cover
Single by Nirvana
from the album Bleach
B-side "Big Cheese"
Released November 1988
Format 7"
Recorded June-September 1988 at Reciprocal Recordings in Seattle, Washington
Genre Grunge
Label Sub Pop
Producer Jack Endino
Nirvana singles chronology
"Love Buzz"
(1988)		 "Sliver"
(1990)
Back cover
Back cover
“Love Buzz”
Song by Nirvana
Album Bleach
Released June 15, 1989 (1989-06-15)
Recorded June-September 1988 at Reciprocal Recordings in Seattle, Washington
Genre Grunge
Length 3:42
Label Sub Pop
Writer Robbie van Leeuwen
Producer Jack Endino
Bleach track listing
"School"
(4)		 “Love Buzz”
(5)		 "Paper Cuts"
(6)


“Love Buzz”
"Shocking Blue At Home" L.P. cover
"Shocking Blue At Home" L.P. cover
album track by Shocking Blue
Album At Home
Released 1969
Genre Pop music
Label Pink Elephant
Composer Robbie van Leeuwen
Producer Robbie van Leeuwen
At Home track listing
"Long and Lonesome Road"
(9)		 “Love Buzz”
(10)		 "Butterfly and I"
(11)


"Love Buzz" is a song by Dutch rock band Shocking Blue that first appeared on their 1969 album At Home. The song is perhaps best known for the 1988 cover of the song by grunge band Nirvana, which was their debut single on Sub Pop Records and the first single in the Sub Pop Single of the Month club, a marketing gimmick which helped Sub Pop stay temporarily financially solvent. A slightly different version of the song would also appear on Nirvana's debut album, Bleach, along with the single's b-side, "Big Cheese".

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.

In 2004 The English band The Prodigy used a sample of the 1969 Shocking Blue track "Love Buzz" in their song Phoenix (appearing on the album Always Outnumbered, Never Outgunned).

Contents

[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, after which the much larger man hurled Cobain to the floor and the performance came to a halt with band members and crew separating the two. 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 can be found on the DVD with the 2004 rarities box set With the Lights Out.

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • 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.

[edit] How To Spot a Fake

How do you Spot a fake Nirvana "Love Buzz" 7" Vinyl?

The Love Buzz 7" vinyl record is the first official Nirvana release. It was released in the US on Sub Pop Records as SP-23 on 10/88. This is considered the most collectable Nirvana vinyl one can own. The record typically goes for over $2000 and more for mint copies. Due to the collectibility and premium price the Love Buzz Vinyl is often counterfeited. Below is a simple check list to help you spot fake Love Buzz copies.


  1. 1- The Albums entire cover is printed in black and white on thicker white paper. It is one sheet folded in half.
  1. 2- The official vinyl was only pressed in black or "green splash" vinyl, any other color is fake. Rumour has it that out of the 1000 records printed, only 100 were printed in green splash, though this hasn't been confirmed. Regardless, they are considered to be greatly rarer. There have been articles written by people stating that the ONLY printing color was black, which is un-true!
  1. 3- Only 1000 hand numbered copies were released with a limited number of unnumbered copies given away by Sub Pop staff and band members. A small handful just have a red slash in the number box. These numbers were created by a fine tip red felt pen. Numbers 1-540 were numbered by a left handed person. 541-1000 were numbered by a second person.
  1. 4- On back cover of the album several names and credits are listed. The original album had the names printed in black over some black background images. This has been the most difficult thing for counterfeiters to recreate due to limitations of copiers. On many fakes the names ALICE WHEELER and SUZANNE SASIC are paratially faded out due to the black on black issue. Their names will be clearly visible on all real Love Buzz albums.
  1. 5- There is a machine-stamped word on both run-out grooves, it reads, Kdisc. This is often very light and you may need to hold the disc up to a light to see it. If this is missing you are looking at a fake.

[edit] References

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Nirvana
Kurt Cobain · Krist Novoselic · Dave Grohl
Aaron Burckhard · Dave Foster · Chad Channing · Dale Crover · Dan Peters · Jason Everman · Pat Smear
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