This song was inspired by a line in the poem Howl by Allen Ginsberg: "Machine says I saw the best minds of my generation." Bush lead singer Gavin Rossdale is a big fan of Ginsberg; the "Everything Zen" lyric "Rain Dogs howl for the century" is a reference to the Ginsberg poem Howl. When he spoke with Songfacts in 2017, he said: "I like that sort of Ginsberg-y, stream-of-consciousness approach to words, rather than, say, country songwriting where there are narratives and stories and places and names and descriptions."
Gavin Rossdale told Entertainment Weekly: "I've always sung it as a sense of survival and triumph. That sort of maverick spirit and energy and refusal to be compromised."
A machine head is a device used for tuning a guitar or other stringed instrument, but that's not what the song is about. "It's a more allegorical sort of thing," Rossdale told Songfacts regarding the title.
See your Spotify stats (with number of plays and minutes listened) and discover new music.
Music data, artist images, album covers, and song previews are provided by Spotify. Spotify is a trademark of Spotify AB.