history of the siege of lisbon blues

strangely jose saramago's history of the siege of lisbon gets a reference in john jeremiah sullivan's the ballad of geeshie and elvie in todays new york times - we are in the world of the collectors and archivists (harry smith, alan lomax being the only names horsemouth recognises) - and we are in this world with a desire to wrestle the lone voices on the recording down from the aether into photographs, birth certificates and surviving family members.

a young researcher placed with an old archivist just happens to have kept photos of documents after it 'doesn't work out' , one clue leads to another and we are with the surviving family and their stories. at one point our author worries that a document has been faked - like the history of the siege of lisbon where the editor of a boring conventional history decides to insert a not - the crusaders decide not to stay to help the portuguese retake lisbon from the moors. now make a history out of that says his boss.

maybe the history of the siege of lisbon is a clue here, perhaps we are being sold a pup, misdirected. horsemouth can't help reading it as a betrayal of trust, as a scam, and to what end, with photos (and family accounts) of the singer in later life we are really no closer to the mystery of the voice on the tape, or even of the guitar notes, as soon as they were recorded they split off and became themselves, this is what music does, the singer achieves a strange kind of immortality by lottery, of what gets saved from the wreck of ephemeral life by archivists and collectors. in publishing an account of this world the article has done us a favour.