Everything Zen


"Everything Zen" is a single by British rock band Bush. The song was released to radio in autumn 1994 before being physically released on 10 April 1995. The single comes from their 1994 debut album, Sixteen Stone. It was the band's first single released under the name Bush, and their second overall.

Lyrics and music

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" and "...on sale again" are taken from David Bowie's 1971 song "Life on Mars?". Other references in the song include Tom Waits, Jane's Addiction's "Ted, Just Admit It...", Alice in Chains' "Would?", and the Elvis Presley sighting conspiracy theory.
The song's opening guitar riff has been compared to that of Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World".

Music video

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. 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."

Release and performance

"Everything Zen" was released to radio in the United States 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. Although it did not achieve immediate success, it eventually reached number two on the Billboard Modern Rock Chart, 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 and 12-inch vinyl
  1. "Everything Zen"
  2. "Bud"
  3. "Monkey"
  4. "Everything Zen"

    Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Release history