The Easy Star All-Stars are a collective family of some of the finest regga… Read Full Bio ↴The Easy Star All-Stars are a collective family of some of the finest reggae musicians in the New York area. The band features a rotating cast drawn from a talented pool of players, meaning that every show has its own nuances and its own life. The masterminds behind the All-Stars are Easy Star musical director Michael Goldwasser (a.k.a. Michael G), frequent production partner Victor Axelrod (a.k.a. Ticklah), and Easy Star execs Eric Smith and Lem Oppenheimer. These four were the team behind the album Dub Side of the Moon (2003), the complete reggae re-vision of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and one of the most successful reggae albums of the 21st century. It has spent over 5 years on Billboard’s Top Reggae Chart and Reggae Catalog Chart. In 2006, the band followed up Dub Side with Radiodread, a complete reggae re-vision of Radiohead’s OK Computer. That record has also been a huge success, sparking great reviews, and even garnering praise from Radiohead.

Originally formed in 1997 for Easy Star Records’ first recordings, the All-Stars primarily existed as a studio entity until releasing Dub Side of the Moon. The success of that album led to the formation of a touring version of the collective. The core of the touring line-up has remained relatively intact, including Ras Iray (bass/vocals), Junior Jazz (guitar/vocals), Ive-09 (drums) and Jeremy Mage (keyboards) in the rhythm section. Tamar-kali and Menny More provide additional lead and backing vocals, while the group is filled out by the Chronic Horns (Jennifer Hill on saxophone & flute and Buford O’Sullivan on trombone). The band is always mixed live by a dub engineer, usually Marcos Ferrari or Jocko Randall (of John Brown’s Body). Other members of the musical collective, such as Victor Rice (Victor Rice Octet, Version City All-Stars and bassist on Dub Side of the Moon), reggae legend Ranking Joe, trumpet player Pam Fleming (of the Burning Brass), singers Kirsty Rock (of Trumystic) and Stephanie McKay, Groove Collective’s Jay Rodriguez, Antibalas’s Stuart Bogie, John Brown Body’s Josh Driscoll, and even Ticklah and Michael G join the All-Stars on specific gigs, adding their abilities to the already talented ensemble.

The Easy Star All-Stars—in any combination of members—have been a resounding success. The band has played at numerous major festivals or headlined their own shows in the U.S., U.K., France, Italy, Chile, Poland, Turkey, Mexico, Argentina, Israel, Croatia, Ireland, Egypt, Brazil, and beyond.

As individuals, the band’s vocalists and instrumentalists have toured and recorded with Burning Spear, Toots and the Maytals, Jimmy Cliff, Gil Scott-Heron, The Toasters, The Meditations, Bernie Worrell, DJ Logic, MC Solaar, King Django, Antibalas, The Scofflaws, Diana King, Dennis Brown, Monty Alexander, Sister Carol, and many others. Each of these musicians gets a chance to shine in the typical Easy Star set, whether it is through soloing, composing, or singing, or simply through playing an essential part in this tight-knit collective. Each line-up may result in slightly different sounds for this unique reggae band, but regardless of who plays, the one thing that never changes is that the Easy Star All-Stars deliver a fun, exciting, and different show every time out.

Eclipse
Easy Star All-Stars Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

All that you touch
All that you see
All that you taste
All you feel.
All that you love
All that you hate
All you distrust
All you save.

All that you give
All that you deal
All that you buy,
Beg, borrow or steal.
All you create
All you destroy
All that you do
All that you say.
All that you eat
Everyone you meet
All that you slight
Everyone you fight.
All that is now
All that is gone
All that's to come

And everything under the sun is in tune
But the sun is eclipsed by the moon.

Overall Meaning

The lyrics from Easy Star All-Stars' song 'Eclipse' reflect the concept of interconnectedness and the fact that all our actions, thoughts, and emotions have an impact on our lives and the world around us. The song is a reminder that our entire existence is made up of the sum total of our experiences and that everything we encounter in life is interrelated. The opening lines "All that you touch, All that you see, All that you taste, All you feel" reflect the importance of sensory experience in our lives and how our senses shape our perceptions of the world.

The song also highlights the paradoxical nature of existence, whereby things that are seemingly opposite or contradictory are actually interrelated. For instance, the lines "All that you love, All that you hate" reflect the idea that the things we love and the things we hate are not separate entities, but rather two sides of the same coin. Similarly, "All that you create, All you destroy" highlights the fact that creation and destruction are intertwined and that one cannot exist without the other.

The final lines of the song "And everything under the sun is in tune But the sun is eclipsed by the moon" suggest that despite the interconnectedness of everything, there are still forces that can obscure or overshadow certain aspects of life. The metaphor of the eclipsed sun symbolizes the way in which even the most powerful and dominant forces can be overshadowed or obscured by others.

Line by Line Meaning

All that you touch
Everything you come in contact with

All that you see
Everything you observe

All that you taste
Everything you ingest

All you feel.
All the emotions you experience

All that you love
Everything you hold dear

All that you hate
Everything you despise

All you distrust
All the things you doubt

All you save.
Everything you put aside for later

All that you give
Everything you offer

All that you deal
Everything you bargain with

All that you buy,
Everything you purchase from others