Love Buzz

Despite the two decades plus of hype in hindsight, it was clear at the time of the album's release that Nirvana's "Nevermind" heralded a new chapter in the history of Rock music. It had a ragged, aggressive sound that was completely different than everything else that was flooding the record stores and airwaves of the time. I can best compare it to the impact delivered by The Sex Pistols debut "Never Mind The Bollocks" in 1977, or even 1964's "Meet The Beatles". This was music that clearly meant business and was intent on being heard on its own terms, while having the effect of laying waste to all that came before it.

I'm sure that by now, all of you are aware of what The Beatles achieved in 1964. But by 1977, a lot of people were listening to Progressive Rock and Fusion bands that were exploring new avenues in Jazz and Classical settings. When Punk Rock arrived on US shores, the collective gut reaction was "Aw crap, we forgot how to rock!", despite the overtly political stance of many British punks. But the politics of the UK were lost on many American suburban kids, who nonetheless, quickly bought into the 'rebelling to fit in' fashion aspects of Punk. The musical environment was much the same with Nirvana. The early 90's was the heyday of glammed up Pop Metal bands like Poison, Guns N Roses, Motley Crue, Tesla, Warrant, and a hundred others just like them. The explosive success of "Nevermind" caught the music business with their pants down by obsoleting the careers of the Pop Metal bands, nearly singlehandedly. As it is with any new thing in music, a frantic scramble ensued by record companies to find their own Nirvana, starting in Nirvana's hometown of Seattle. The first ones out of the garage were Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, who led the charge of a flannel-clad army that was to dominate the identity of 90's Rock.

Now, for a minute on the soapbox. In the early 90's avalanche of Seattle's Best Grunge, it came to be that everything that was not Guns N Roses or The Rolling Stones was being referred to as Alternative Rock. I say again now, as I said often then, alternative to what? Opera? Any new Rock band, from 1991 onward, that wasn't overtly Pop, got tagged with that vague, trite label. Even veterans like Bob Mould and The Replacements got sucked into its vortex. A truly alternative act like Captain Beefheart gets filed under Rock, and Sun Ra is classified as Jazz, as profoundly spaced out as his work was, but yet neither of them are considered to be Alternative? My guess is that overuse killed the term's validity, but in truth, it was no longer meaningful by 1994, and it's even less relevant now. So can we recognize the history at work here, and if we simply must have labels, can we refer to new Rock music as something more accurate that demonstrates we're listening? But I suppose that's not how marketing works, is it?

So, while "Nevermind" was the album that broke Nirvana into the musical mainstream, it was not their debut. That honor went to "Bleach", which was released on Seattle's small but mighty independent label, Sub Pop, in June of 1989. "Bleach" was well received by critics, but failed to make any chart impact in the US. However, the album was re-released internationally by Geffen Records in 1992, following the success of "Nevermind". The re-release debuted at #89 on the Billboard 200 chart. Since its initial release, Bleach has sold over 1.7 million units in the United States alone. To date, it is Sub Pop's best selling album. Not bad for a record that cost a total of $606.17 to make.

Following the November 1988 release of their debut single for Sub Pop, "Love Buzz", Nirvana practiced for nearly three weeks in preparation for recording a full-length album, even though Sub Pop had only requested an EP. In one of his first interviews, Kurt Cobain told Sounds journalist John Robb, "When I write a song, the lyrics are the least important thing. I can go through two or three different subjects in a song, and the title can mean absolutely nothing at all. Sometimes I try to make things harder for myself, just to try to make myself a bit more angry. I try out a few subconscious things I suppose, like conflicts with other people. Most of the lyrics on the "Bleach" album are about my life in Aberdeen". Cobain also said that he felt pressure to fit the expectations of Sub Pop's concept of the local Seattle sound in order to build a fanbase. Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic said in a 2001 interview with Rolling Stone that the band had played a cassette tape in their tour van that had an album by The Smithereens on one side, and one by the Nordic death metal band, Celtic Frost, on the other. Novoselic noted that the combination probably had an influence on Cobain's writing.

This is Nirvana's recording of "Love Buzz", a song written by Robbie van Leeuwen of the Dutch band, The Shocking Blue. Like many who had gone before them, Nirvana's debut single was a cover version.

The Shocking Blue

The Shocking Blue was a Rock band from The Hague in the Netherlands, that formed in 1967. Their biggest hit, "Venus", went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1970. (The 1986 cover version by Bananarama also hit #1.) By 1973, the band had amassed sales of 13.5 million records in Europe and the Netherlands, which weren't matched until the mega-success of the Swedish group, Abba. Global sales of the "Venus" single alone exceeded 5 million copies! Those are pretty good numbers for an act remembered as a one hit wonder.

In an interesting bit of twisted history and borderline copyright liberty, the song "Venus" was most likely based on the melody of "The Banjo Song", recorded in 1963 by The Big Three, featuring a young Cass Elliot. "The Banjo Song" was an arrangement of the classic Stephen Foster tune, "Oh Susannah", as done by folksinger Tim Rose, which set Foster's lyrics to a completely new melody. (Neil Young and Crazy Horse also covered Rose's version on their 2012 album "Americana".) Check out this brief video comparing The Big Three's recording with The Shocking Blue's "Venus". Everything old is new again!

Getting back to our primary song at hand, "Love Buzz" was never released as a single by The Shocking Blue, either as an A or B side. Its sole release was on their 1969 album for the Pink Elephant label, "At Home", buried deep on Side 2. Later pressings of the album would add the hit single "Venus" for obvious reasons. It's unclear where Kurt Cobain first heard "Love Buzz", and why he liked it enough for Nirvana to record it. But evidence points to Cobain's reputation among friends for his eclectic mixtapes, some of which have recently surfaced online. It's likely that he included the song on a mixtape at random, and the riff stuck with him as music is prone to do, particularly to those with a creative mindset. Listening to this tune now, it's easy to hear the influence it had on the sound of Nirvana, much as The Beau Brummels laid the subconscious groundwork for R.E.M. a decade prior. Here is the original recording of "Love Buzz" by The Shocking Blue.

Considering that The Shocking Blue were a far more popular act in Europe than on these shores, it's still surprising how many of their original albums are available on CD, even as imports, nearly 45 years after "Venus" was a hit. There are a few collections of their music out there as well.

I would think that by now, every last shoebox has been gone through in the search for any remaining unreleased material by Nirvana. Along with 3 or 4 live releases, videos, best-of's and box sets, their studio albums, "Nevermind", "Bleach", and "In Utero", have all received the deluxe reissue treatment, including new vinyl editions. These can all be found at The Big A, and most likely, at your local indie emporium of recorded musical entertainment.