The Best Cover Album of All Time
Seu Jorge sings David Bowie in Portuguese and YOU NEED IT
The designation “cover album” bugs me. It didn’t become a thing until Dylan and the deification of the singer/songwriter, and somehow there was more authenticity to the singer singing their own words! Like it was more honest.
Was Billie Holiday dishonest? Ella Fitzgerald? Sinatra did not “cover” a song. They were singers. They sang songs. Songs are meant to be sung. I’m pretty sure the true worth of a song can be determined by how well it survives being interpreted by multiple singers — not just by the person who happened to write it.
Still, this is the language I’m left with, so I’ll go along. For now.
So, I was watching Wes Anderson’s film, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and at some point, one of the sailors starts singing. Seu Jorge, a Brazilian singer of some renown, is singing David Bowie songs with just an acoustic guitar, in Portuguese.
It made the movie — which I like quite a lot — into something more. It was a holy…
