"Everything Zen" is a single by British rock band Bush. The song was released to radio in the fall of 1994 before being physically released on 17 April 1995. The single comes from their 1994 debut album, Sixteen Stone.[3] It was the band's first single released under the name "Bush",[4] and their second overall.
The title of the song may reference the poem Howl by Allen Ginsberg which includes the phrase "who vanished into nowhere Zen New Jersey." The lyrics "Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow" are taken from David Bowie's 1971 song "Life on Mars?". Other references in the song include Tom Waits[5] ("Rain Dogs howl for the century"), Jane's Addiction's "Ted, Just Admit It..." ("there's no sex in your violence"), Alice in Chains' "Would?" ("try to see it once my way"), and the Elvis Presleysighting conspiracy theory ("I don't believe that Elvis is dead").
The video was the first video Bush had ever made. The video was directed by Matt Mahurin, who also makes an appearance in the video wearing a mask, and was shot on 12 and 13 November 1994. Scenes from the video were recreated in the opening credits of the TV series Millennium.
Gavin Rossdale said of the video: "I hadn't even seen that many videos before making this because I never had MTV. I just remember that it felt weird miming with all those people standing around, but you soon get over that. Obviously, this video was hugely important in breaking us in America."[7]
Release and performance
"Everything Zen" was released to radio in the United Sttes in 1994, before the album Sixteen Stone was released. KROQ started playing the song alongside "Little Things" before other radio stations did. As a result, Sixteen Stone, which was scheduled to be released in January 1995, was released in November 1994 instead.[8]Although it did not achieve immediate success, it eventually reached number two on the BillboardModern Rock Chart,[9] number 5 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks and Canadian Rock/Alternative chart, and number 40 on the Hot 100 Airplay. It failed to hit the Hot 100 that year.
Track listing
European CD single (6544-95794-2) and 12-inch vinyl (A8196T)
1 2 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (1 January 1997). "Various Artists - MTV's Best of the Buzz Bin, Vol. 1 (1996)". In Bogdanov, Vladimir; Erlewine, Michael; Erlewine, Stephen Thomas; Unterberger, Richie; Woodstra, Chris (eds.). AllMusic Guide to Rock. San Francisco: Miller Freeman, Inc. p.1080.
↑ "Everything Zen by Bush - Songfacts". www.songfacts.com. Lead singer Gavin Rossdale made reference to two of his favorite people in one of the lyrics: Tom Waits and Allen Ginsberg. The line, "Rain Dogs howl for the century" refers to the Waits album Rain Dogs (also a "song), and the Ginsberg poem Howl.
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