Because life is wild, we now have video of Eddie Vedder singing a song Jason Isbell wrote for a character Bradley Cooper based on Eddie Vedder. Is that full circle?
Vedder covered “Maybe It’s Time” from Cooper’s “Star is Born” at a concert in Tempe on Sunday. Video of the performance, which was kind of chilling, spread around the Internet like wildfire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQHyxpVuCDs&feature=youtu.be
As is typical of Isbell’s work, “Maybe It’s Time” is pure alt-country beauty—pensive and poetic, but deceptively simple-sounding. (Let’s be honest, it’s better than “Shallow.”) On Sunday, Vedder played the much song like Cooper’s character Jackson Maine, accompanied by only his own guitar.
Cooper needn’t have ever divulged that Vedder inspired his performance as Maine for the parallels to be glaring from the movie’s first scene.
Effortlessly believable, the Vedder version of “Maybe It’s Time” is a testament to Cooper’s work on the film, and Isbell’s writing for Maine. The Pearl Jam frontman also brings a certain gravitas to the song that underscores how well it holds up on its own, outside the very specific context of a “A Star Is Born.” (As it should.) Isbell was the right man for the job, but then again so was Cooper, who was wise enough to lean on Vedder.
To be honest, it’s also just kind of amusing to see Vedder singing a song Cooper sang as Vedder. It’s worth remembering that Cooper revealed Vedder’s reaction to the news he was embarking on a new “Star Is Born” project was simply, “Bro, don’t do that.”
