Robert Johnson: Artist or autistic?
By Juan Avila .
Juan Avila is a Mexican researcher of Blues, musician, Lead Guitar on Omniblues (with a step through) haven been through Buenos Aires some years ago.
He regularly writes for the Bluespain electronic magazine and from now on, his articles will have place in La Maza Blues.
Many thanks Juan.
ROBERT JOHNSON: ARTIST OR AUTISTIC?
AUTHOR: JUAN AVILA
INTRODUCTION:
I’m going to allow myself to approach, from my point of view, respectable but particular and simply as one more opinion among many others: THE LEGEND AND THE MYTH ABOUT ROBERT JOHNSON.
I will carry out these appreciations in four premises.
1. - As a musician, professional guitarist, with more than 25 years of activity and reader of topics related with the blues;
2. - As scholar of: ‘The Systems Theory applied to Human Development’ subject that I studied for three years at the Tarsus Institute of Buenos Aires, Argentina.
3.- Beginning from the concept of Ockham (Guillermo Ockham); ‘The easiest explanation is the one that most brings us closer to reality’;
4.- No one is owner of the absolute truth.
MYTH VS REALITY
The border which limits myth from reality is very thin; myth and reality are interwoven in space and time: they confuse themselves, they mix and mutually feedback; eventually the crash is unavoidable and when this happens, generally and at least in concept, reality is the great loser.
Experience and history demonstrate this. In the case of Galileo Galilee and his posture against the geocentric theory, fomented for centuries by the church, is a clear example that: when a myth or belief, even is mistaken, firmly rooted in the collective consciousness confronts reality, for truth or certainty, truth is the one that loses and myth imposes itself at least in principle.
‘Galileo seems to go from triumph to triumph and convinces all of the World. Therefore, the supporters of the geocentric theory according to Aristotle, turn into fierce enemies and the attacks against him, begin with the appearance of Sidereus Nuncios.
They cannot permit themselves to loose the confrontation and they do not want to see their science put under question.
Galileo is taken to judgment. ‘On June 22nd, 1633, at the Dominican Convent of Saint Mary Sopra Minerva, Rome the sentence is emitted: Galileo is condemned to prison for life (sentence immediately commuted by residence for life by Urbano VIII) and his work is prohibited
He likewise pronounces the retraction formula that the (Santo Oficio) had prepared and thanked the ten cardinals who had defended him and specially, to the three cardinals who had asked for his exoneration.
Let us notice at the same time that Galileo never pronounced the famous phrase ‘And nonetheless, it moves’, the one that was invented by an English journalist in 1757 and repeated later on by the Italian Giuseppe Baretti, another journalist. (Wikipedia).
(Retraction: Abandonment of a belief or of a fidelity). In other words, he was forced to retract himself. Finally, the sentence was this one: the duty to pray once a week the seven penance psalms during a period of three years plus the one of not moving too much away from his luxurious villa in Arcetri, this last sentence which was immediately removed.
During many years after, the church continued fomenting and defending the geocentric theory. Myth or reality? Where does one begin and where does the other one end?
Robert Leroy Johnson (MAY 11TH, 1911- AUGUST 16TH, 1938).
IS PROBABLY THE MOST FAMOUS AND IMPORTANT MUSICIAN OF THE DELTA BLUES.
His recordings were performed from 1936-1937 developing a remarkable, unrepeatable and unmistakable combination of singing, unique ability on the guitar and composition. Showing a talent that has influenced several musician generations, his mysterious death at an early age of 27 years, contributed to build up the myth and the legend around his name considered by many as ‘the grandfather of the blues’.
His vocal phrasing, his original songs and his guitar ability have influenced a great range of musicians who start out from: MUDDY WATERS up to BOB DYLAN, going through JIMI HENDRIX, JEFF BECK, JOHNNY WINTER and ERIC CLAPTON among many others.
He is in the number 5 position of the ROLLING STONE magazine ranking of the 100 greatest guitarists of all times. He also is part of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. ERIC CLAPTON has said that ROBERT JOHNSON is: ‘Is the most important blues singer and guitarist that has ever existed’.
His life is so mysterious as his death; very much has been said about both, very little is known in reality. From his first launch, Johnson’s recordings were admired and recognized by blues as well as jazz record collectors which pushed many to search for his biography without being too successful.
In 1941, ALAN LOMAX said that in one occasion MUDDY WATERS commented to him that JOHNSON had presented himself in the Clarksdale, Mississippi area. In 1959 SAMUEL CHARTERS only could add that WILL SHADE of the MEMPHIS JUG BAND reminded him that JOHNSON had played with him in West Memphis, Arkansas.
In 1961, DON LAW, who recorded JOHNSON in 1936, described this talented musician as a very shy young man.
How did ROBERT JOHNSON die? Who killed him and why? His death is a mystery! Was he poisoned, was he shot or was he stabbed? Who was the murderer? There are many stories, versions and tales on the subject but which one is the truth?
JOHNSON’S death certificate, released by the famous blues researcher GAYLE DEAN WARDLOW, declares that he died on August 16 of 1938 in LEFLORE COUNTY in the outskirts of GREENWOOD on the MISSISSIPPI DELTA.
Additional data from the death certificate:
Age: 26 years old.
Occupation: Musician
Death cause: no annotation exists.
Additional factors: (‘no doctor’).
THE DEATH SCENE.
Leflore Country is located in the center of the MISSISSIPPI Delta in a very limited area that runs from the South of MEMPHIS to VICKSBURG.
The territory was first occupied by CHOCTAW and CHICKASAW Indians.
At the end of the 19th century, the ‘white peoples’ cotton plantations began to appear. The Afro-Americans worked carrying out different exhausting, tiring out, rough and difficult tasks. The life of these persons was very far away from being pleasant.
In this zone, it was frequent that the blues singers and musicians would travel and make their appearances to entertain the Afro-American residents. During the last weeks of his life, Robert Johnson lived in this area.
Bob Scott, the son of one of the owners of these plantations, remembers him playing on the front part of the store of his fathers’ plantation.
Generally, on Saturday afternoons the authorized stores from the plantations where the focal and gathering point of the Afro-Americans in the Delta although basically, its subsistence was due to what they themselves had sown.
On Saturday afternoons, on the front part of the plantation store, when would usually gather to drink, bet and to listen to the travelling Bluesmen. According to Robert Lockwood Jr. and to Johnny Shines, there weren’t many clubs on the Delta, except for certain zones as Helena, Arkansas.
When the Blues singers appeared in these communities, parties were organized, usually on the front part of the plantation store and they would gather to listen to the blues, sing, dance, drink and eat barbecue and fried fish.
Apparently, from one of these gatherings, the murder of Robert Johnson was carried out. Supposedly, the murder was a love rival because it is kwon that Johnson was a compulsive womanizer. According to Memphis Slim, in an interview to Jim O’Neal editor of ‘Living Blues’, Johnson preferred the company of home-loving women and who were good cooks.
THE DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF AN ANOUNCED DEATH.
It is from the death scenario, a musical presentation, where the disagreements and different versions of the death of Robert Johnson begin to be perceived.
From the most strange ones, like the version that James Bannister a ‘bluesman tale’ told Jim O’Neal in the month of April 1980 about Robert Johnson’s death: ‘There was a woman in Mississippi that frequently accompanied Johnson. She was serving some drinks behind the bar; she brought a bottle of beer to Johnson’s table, the musician takes the bottle and falls on the floor and in one second, his the blood dries; in a question of minutes, there wasn’t a drop of blood in his body’.
The version of McCormick; Mac McCormick a specialist in the biography of Robert Johnson, said that in 1970 Johnson had been stabbed.
The version of Williamson II
The version that Williamson II, Johnny Shines a partner of Johnson, said that a little after Johnson’s death, Sonny Boy Williamson II (Aleck Miller) had told him that Johnson had died in his arms (Williamson’s) one night when one of Williamson’s presentations had been carried out.
For many years, Shines heard many and varied versions about the death of Johnson until he heard the version of Honeyboy Edwards and it is the version that according to what Shines said, is the one he considered truthful.
According with the version of Edwards, Johnson was going to present himself in a place that was some miles at the South of Greenwood. This place was known as ‘Three Forks’ consisting of some houses and their store.
Edwards said that a small construction in the back part of the store functioned as a ‘Juke’ (a place where blues presentations were carried out). Several musicians would present themselves that night; among them were Edwards, Williamson and Johnson.
‘Edwards arrived at midnight and as he entered the ‘Juke’, he saw Johnson in one of the corners of the place surrounded by some women who were encouraging him to sing. They did this singing in choir some of his songs but he told them that he felt sick. Even so, he did play some of his pieces incapable of properly performing them and he was taken to lie down to another room and later on, was taken to Greenwood’.
According to what Edwards got to know, Johnson was poisoned with a bottle of Whiskey that one of the women of the Juke gave him. According to this version, Johnson would be taken to Greenwood at three o’clock in the morning and during Monday, (to what is understood that the presentation took place the previous weekend, surely as it was the custom on Saturday) Johnson had been very sick.
By Tuesday he writhed in pain on the floor, dying on Wednesday night.
According to Steve LaVere another of the well-known researcher of Johnson’s life, the poison could have been ‘Strychnine’ that in those days, was very easy to get.
Strychnine is an alkaloid of the Quaker Buttons and other species of the Strychnos gender. It is a white crystalline powder, odorless and bitter that can be ingested by the mouth, inhaled, mixed in a solution or given in an intravenous way.
The Strichnine salts are water-soluble. At high dosages, it produces a great stimulation of all of the central nervous system, restlessness, breathing difficulty, dark urine and convulsions provoking a respiratory failure and brain death. In dosages higher than 25 milligrams, it can produce death by asphyxia due to the contracture of the thoracic muscles.
The lethal dosage is from 15 to 25 mg.
The clinical signs appear 5 to 10 minutes after having ingested it. The local application of Strychnine to the surface of the cerebral cortex causes first a decrease of the threshold for the stimulation and moments later, causes synchronized explosions of activity which can be registered with an electroencephalogram.
Forensic medicine states that if one person ingests that poison, it has a maximum lifetime of ten minutes because it is very effective and quickly penetrates the tissues. This poison causes a fast and a slight pain death.
The above contradicts with what was said by LaVere in the sense that Johnson was poisoned with Strychnine.
So then, Johnson was not poisoned or another substance was used for his death.
A WHITE MAN, THE MURDERER?
According to Edwards version, Johnson agonized three days: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for which he couldn’t have been poisoned with Strychnine as LaVere supposed because as it already has been said, this poison is of a fast action, maximum 10 minutes.
The use of Strychnine would be more in accordance with the version of James Bannister who said that Johnson fell, like stroked to death, at the same moment that he drank the ‘poisoned’ beer.
On the other hand, if Johnson was poisoned and agonized three days, then the poison was another one.
There is one more version which is worthy to comment: the one of Steve Brazier, an English blues guitarist, who travelling by the Delta, met Queen Elizabeth ‘Bet’ Thomas who in an interview for ‘Living Blues’ said she met Johnson thanks to her brother (Bet’s) and that Johnson had been stabbed.
In the same order of ideas and according with Miller Carter, an elderly man who knew ‘Bet’, who said the following to Jim O’Neal Carter: That Johnson and Bet lived together and that it was Bet’s father who killed Johnson. ‘I don’t know how he killed him; I think the shot him’.
Miller Carter seems to be the only one who believes that Johnson was shot.
It is well known that in that time and on the Delta, if an Afro-American man was assassinated either by a white man or by another Afro-American man, the authorities would do hardly anything to solve or investigate the crime. For which Johnson could have been assassinated by a white man whose case the authorities would bother less in investigating and the assassination would try to be forgotten by everyone as soon as possible.
DEVIL LEGEND.
The legend of Robert Johnson is currently known by anyone who is a blues lover that he was a young Afro-American that lived on a rural plantation on the Mississippi and strongly wished to become a great blues musician for which he was instructed by someone he knew, to take his guitar and to go at midnight to a crossroad close to Dockery’s plantation. This is how in this place, Johnson met a tall Afro-American man (the devil) who took Johnson’s guitar and tuned it, providing mastery to whom would play it, he returned the guitar to Johnson in exchange of his soul.
This is how Johnson turned into the most brilliant blues performer, singer and composer ever heard.
This legend was subsequently developed and narrated by Gayle Dean Wardlow, Edward Komara and Elijan Wald among others.
These encounters with the ‘Devil’ have existed since ancient times, as well as in the white people’s tradition as in the Afro-American population.
These encounters have been incorporated to the literature in 1824 by Washington Irving in ‘The Devil and Tom Walker’ and in 1936 by Stephen Vincent Benet in ‘The Devil and Daniel Webster’ among others.
In the 30’s, Harry Middleton compiled many stories about banjo, harmonic and guitar musicians who sold their souls to the devil on a crossroad.
In 1924, the theme appeared in blues records by Clara Smith and her ‘Done sold my soul to the devil (and my heart’s done turned to stone) this influential song which has had frequent cover’s such as the one from Merline Johnson and the one of Casey Bill Weldon.
It is said that apparently Johnson occasionally mentioned he had sold his soul to the devil but it wasn’t clear whether he seriously said this. The aforementioned, is highly discussed by Tom Graves in his book: ‘Crossroads, the life and after-life of blues legend Robert Johnson’ published in 2008.
Son House.
Son House once told this legend about the devil and Johnson to Pete Welding as an explanation about the very fast way that Johnson became a master of the guitar. He said that only two years had passed from which Johnson beginner had become to be Master Johnson.
There is another version which mentions that the encounter of Johnson with the devil, did not happen on a crossroad but in a graveyard. He told the previous to Steve LaVere and this is how he narrates it:
‘Ike Zinnerman is a blues guitarist of Hazelhurst, Mississippi. He learned how to play the guitar sitting at midnight on a grave. It is believed that Zinnerman influenced and also helped in a big way, to develop the talent of the young Johnson because according to this, Zinnerman and Johnson practiced in a graveyard. It is believed that Zinnerman influenced and inclusively helped in a great measure, to develop the talent of the young Johnson because according to this, Zinnerman and Johnson practiced in a graveyard at midnight because it was a solitary, silent and calm place. In this way, they were not bothered by anyone.
Apparently, these sessions lasted for a year, the time in which the young Johnson learned enough from his master Zinnerman. For which in all of the cases Zinnerman would be ‘the devil’.
Other authors explain that the crossroad is simply a mental, emotional and even religious dilemma. Namely between the Religious fervor imposed to him in childhood and the blues musician’s worldly life.
3 IN 1: JOHNSON’S ABILITY.
When Johnson arrived a town, he would play on the streets for tips, outside the barber shop, outside of a restaurant or in the back part of the plantation store.
He would play the songs that people would ask him to play, not necessarily his compositions that very many people in those days didn’t know. They also didn’t necessarily ask him to play blues. Johnson had a very good ear and an outstanding ability to interpret melodies with only listening to them once for the first time. Johnson didn’t have problems to interpret what this audience would ask him for: either blues, jazz or country songs.
It is also said that Johnson quickly connected with his audience and the local community; in this way he could stay for an indefinite time in each place. Johnny Shines, musical partner of Johnson was 17 years old when he met Johnson and he estimates that Johnson could be one or two years older than him. Shines: ‘Robert was a very friendly person although sometimes very retracted for which he could one night disappear and not see him again until after several days, inclusive weeks but when Johnson played, he did it like nobody else could do it in this business for which the money, even though not much, wouldn’t stop coming in from everywhere.
On February 1929, he married 16 year old Virginia Travis. Soon after, she became pregnant and finally died during the birth labor close to her child on April of 1930. Johnson married the second time with Esther Lockwood (Estela Coleman) the mother of Robert Lockwood Jr. who later on would become also a blues performer following the steps of this stepfather.
After performing several years through all the South of the US, he had the chance to leave 29 legendary songs registered. His 42 recordings (13 of the songs where recorded twice) registered in two recording sessions: the first one in San Antonio, Texas on November 23rd , 26th and 27th of 1936 and the second in Dallas,Texas on the 19th and 20th of June, 1937.
Robert Johnson’s guitar technique is based on an evolution of a syncopated style from Son House, in which a florid language of triplets, glidings and counterpoints talk with the soloist voice on a musical time of 4/4 in which the thumb is in charge of hammering the bass strings.
Robert Johnson can be considered, together with Blind Willie Johnson, as a great master of the guitar slide (or bottleneck, a technique that consists in stepping the cords on the neck not with the left hand fingers but rubbing them with a metal tube or a bottleneck achieving a sharp and sinuous sound typical of the Afro-American primitive music).
As Ramón del Solo states in his article of ‘The Devil and Mr. Johnson’ with the slide he would uproot (bring out) moans like no one else had done it. Keith Richards, the Rolling Stones guitarist remembers the first time he heard a record of Robert Johnson in the house of Brian Jones: ‘Who is he?’, ‘Robert Johnson’, ‘Ok’ but… ‘Who is the other guy who is playing with him?’ He couldn’t believe it was only one guitar.
To give a different point of view of Johnson’s ability on the guitar, lets give an example of Ray Manzarek, keyboardist of The Doors who with one hand would perform the bass of the sound (because the group didn’t regularly have a bass player) and with the right hand, performed the melody of the songs.
To perform the bass sound is something relatively easy. To perform the melody, has its difficulty; but to do both things at the same time, requires of a very developed ability and skill because in this case, the bass and the melody have a very different sequence. If to this we add a lyric with a very high degree of difficulty, different to the bass and the melody, but also interpreted by only one person, the result is incomparable (matchless).
In other words, in order to interpret with property one of Robert Johnson’s songs, you need two very good guitarists and a good singer, as to say three very good performers to do what Johnson would.
GENIUS OR INSANE?
In barely two years, can a person pass from being a beginner to a master of the guitar??
Can somebody who has never played the piano, sit down for the first time in front of this instrument and play it in an extraordinary way?
Here you have a true story, many words, less words. It’s about a couple who has just adopted a child of barely 6 or 7 years old; they are in the living room watching a film that has classical music. In the living room, there is an old piano that no one has played for years. They go upstairs to sleep and in a few minutes, the couple begins to listen to the music of the movie: ‘We left the video on. Let’s go and turn it off.’ Which was their surprise that when they arrived at the living room, the boy was playing on the piano note by note, the musical pieces of the movie. It is known that he had never seen a piano and least had played it or had taken the most minimum of a lesson.
What is most amazing thing is that the boy is autistic.
The British doctor Beate Hermelin who Works in the Goldsmith College at the London University has carried out a study in which it explains the causes of the great talent that many children have who suffer autism. The circumstance is given that many of these children have special abilities in the arithmetic, musical and art areas. The observations that the doctor has collected (gathered) in 20 years of research, she has displayed them in the book: ‘Bright Splinters of the Mind’:
The experiences belong to 50 different cases of autistic children; some of them considered geniuses according to this study, the so called ‘wise autistics’ function in an opposite way that the children who have a normal intelligence quotient. Due to the mental disorder they suffer, they don’t begin to understand the social environment that surrounds them but they can develop complex mental processes with the purpose to perfection the abilities they have. The mind of an autistic is not capable of memorizing general models, but yes, can precisely remember the details.
The person who has been affected, because of this pathological state, distinguished from a very particular signals and symptoms group, generally physical unskillfulness , mental or driving ones. In spite of this commentary, he manage mental skills , which belong to powerful human beings and very intelligent persons.
Generally, we are taking in account the big knowledgements of the human being and we´re observing there are several Savant skills, which can be classified in 4 groups:
Art (Sculpture, Music and Painting ) There are outstanding musicians , interprets , pianists , sculptress and painters.
Dates are figures out and they establish some Savant can memorize whole calendars, and they are able to remember them easily.
Specifically, we commented a case about twins (both were autists) who were able to understand both past and ancient data…they returned towards 4,000 years ago and traveled in the time. Even though formerly dates can be calculated by an algoritm.
Mathematic recovery: Is the capacity to realize mathematic calculations which are inmediate and accurate, for instance , the basic numbers calculation or the 100 decimals division operations with the mind.
Space and mechanic skills: The capacity of do almost exact measurements , without the help of instruments: Detailed Scale-models construction, maps and address memorization.
There another kind of skills , some ones are useless and another ones are particulary human. For example, the numerous languages learning , the strong sharpen of the sense and the perfect chronologic passing appreciation without clocks.
Recently, there isn´t a medic theory which establish the basic reason of the human condition, not at least in its totality .
Despite some savants have clear brain damage , the others can´t be foretold as normal persons, because the recent diagnostics didn´t say that.
As a matter of fact, several neurologists support the savant theory , maybe due to “they share” with the genius ones about mental sub-procedures , which belong to a specific brain level.
Whatever case , and another way or other, this syndrome wake up the fascination of many people along their lives, and we can´t make less this , because we have great potential in our brain inside it (Even though we have not desired some other effects)
Nowadays, it has been discovered that the Savants have huge skills , because of their mental procedures are put on different sides of the brain , which are opposite to a normal person´s ones and they are able to process the information .
The Savant Syndrome is recently very mysterious , but thanks to the “ Neurologic-image “ studies , specifically with MSI techniques (Magnetic Source Image) , we can know more about it.
The time ago thought theory about the left side damages of the brain has been argued by the functional neurologist -image . This theory ,related to the autist´s spectre upsets or the development themselves , is now very justified and it can be explained from its neuropathology.
In fact, this syndrome is very curious . The persons who have the Savant Syndrome are those who possess autism. , but they have an outstanding talent in Art, Mathematics and more . Nowadays, there are 50 persons with this syndrome.
ARTIST OR AUTIST ?
The Autism is a developmental disturbance characterized by the lack of interaction with the environment. It is also a disorder in the brian , which sets out at 3 years old, and demerits the communication and social-interaction. This causes a repetitive and limited behavior.
The Autism can be classified in several ways: As a disorder into the neurologic development or that caused on a psychic apparatus.
The persons who have classic autism show various kinds of symptoms: limitated social interaction, problems about verbal communication and with the no-verbal one. These characteristics rise during the first three years of the childhood (They can often be noticed before two or three years old and they may continue during the whole life).
In spite of there isn´t a “cure”, it can promote an almost normal development with a suitably care and reduce the behavior considered as not appropriate. The autist persons have a hope about a normal life. The Autism affect persons , between two to ten per each 10´000 inhabitants . It all depends from the used diagnostic criteria.
It is thought the autism progress , but this fact it is not clear. It wasn´t made known if the this point refers to a real increase of the cases or due to a great number of diagnostics.
The autism affects 4 times more to men instead of women, and it may be found around the world , no matter what culture, economic level, parents genetic or race is taken place.
The autism varies in severity “grades”. The severest cases refer to a whole speaking absence, a very extremely repetitive behavior, which can be damaging and aggrevive. This can persist for a long time and may be difficult to change, being a huge chalange for those must live, deal with and educate to this persons. The simplest kind of autism (that about high efficiency) can be imperceptible and they use to become confused about shyness, eccentricity and inattention.
It is important to say that an autist can manage very well in some areas and they can malfunction in others. The medic classification of the autism took place in 1943, when Dr. Leo Kanner from the John Hopkins hospital , studied an eleven children group and added the early child autism classification. Simultaneously, an austriac scientist , Dr. Hans Asperger employed the pshychopath term on children who exhibited similar features . His work wasn´t recognized until 1981, due to its german language used. (Wikipedia)
We can advance step by step.
1.- The Autism have severity grades. From the severest to the less severe or those with high efficiency. The less severe can almost be imperceptible and they use to become confused about shyness, eccentricity and inattention. In 1961, Don Law , who recorded Johnsson , described to this smart musician as a “quite shy young”.
2.- The persons who suffer the Savant Syndrome possess high autism grades, but they have a superhuman talent on arts, music, mathematics and another things.
“Autism grades means that it can have a moderate autism or a high efficiency one”. This is confused with shyness, like Johnson was described “Very Shy”.
Also, we can hope the Savant Syndrome has “Presence Grades”.
3.- Recently , it has been discovered that a person with Savant Syndrome carry out their mental procedures with different brain hemisphere likely an average person uses it to process the information.
This “different” ability of the brain procedure in the brain hemispheres could explain the whole independence of the left hand and the right one, which Robert Johnson had, and this allowed him playing the bass , the melody and the lyric simultaneously . It is wonderful and amazing.
4.- Moreover, there are other abilities less usual ones and generally individual ones . For instance, the facility for the several language learning , the senses´ strong sharpness , perfect time appreciation without clocks . “Senses strong sharpness” …this implicates the audibility Johnson had , which is explaining Robert Johnson ´s capacity to please his audience with a wide and different repertory asked by the people. Besides this, he was a great singer.
“Perfect time appreciation without clocks” is an important quality in a musician , because he must be in harmony with the time, due to music is, basically , the combination of the sounds with the silence, through the space and the time.
The time plays an important role in the music. If a person has an audibility and he is able to manage the time perfectly , we have , as a result of this, a person whose music abilities are magnificent .
5.- Generally , considering the huge knowledge of the human being, results curious to know the abilities of the savant are divided in 4 important categories: Art, Music, Painting and Sculpture. “Big music interprets” just Robert Johnson was.
6.- The brain has infinite mysterious, because the person with savant syndrome possess smart capacities.
They can be extraordinary calculators , painters or sculptures really outstanding. They memorize things enormously and have great capacity as if they were musicians. (We´re talking about Robert Johnson)
7.- This spontaneous talent of the autist children is showing itself at early ages and suddenly “ It shows itself generally, but it doesn´t show at early ages necessarily” . This commentary explains the sudden skill of Robert Johnson in the guitar.
Understanding the similarity between the grades of presence that the savant syndrome has, we suppose the sudden term may vary.
8.- At the moment the special abilities are notorious, the autist persons concentrate themselves on those, and the autist feel like being satisfied in doing something well.
They are able to store details in the brain gradually, they relate the data and they can form mind models that permit them projecting in the fields already mentioned.
“The autist feel like being satisfied in doing something well”… The formerly commentary would explain the long sessions of Johnson, alone or with company , in a graveyard or in the street. If you can do a few things well and you find out one of them at least, you concentrate on it, with joy , with pleasure, and you can feel alright about it.
Maybe , Johnson would experiment something similar in the guitar.
What would have more repetition than the Blues bass?
Besides, it has hypnotic effect , it is relaxing and it is full of energy.
9.- The persons called “The Wise Autist” function such as opposite ones to children who have normal intellectual capacity . Due to the autist suffer mental disorder, they can´t figure out the social environment around them , but they can develop complex mental procedures in order to perfect their own skills . Robert Johnson was a social maladjusted or simply he wasn´t able to understand his environment. He would seek a person who could assist him to comprehend it or he only wanted to feel covered , just as he could have had an elder woman …Could this be right?
Hence the autist can´t comprehend his social environment, its function, its rules , its unwritten codes, he can seek the company of a married woman , without consider the hazard about this. He can become alcoholic, and to search lonely places such as a graveyard, where he feels so good.
10.- The medic classification of the Autism was realized until 1943, when Dr. Leo Kanner , who worked at John Hopkins Hospital, studied an eleven children group, and he introduced the early child autism model. At the Johnson times, the autism was unknown ay all, not only in the medic environment, but the Johnson´s one. An environment full of fears , ignorance, believes, myths, legends…Is the base of something amazing , out of order and daily . That thing can´t be explained , comprehended, figured out, and it can be typified as divine or diabolical.
From night to morning, an individual is rising and he becomes in a teacher and he leaves the apprenticeship …The more eloquent explanation establishes that Johnson agreed with the devil.
That explanation was said by other musician, someone who understood the Johnson´s ability in the guitar, someone has testified the Johnson´s procedure…when he became a master from a novice. Someone has seen him as a beginner and by the time Johnson reached the fullness . The 99% people may not comprehend the Johnson greatness at that moment. Most people thought Johnson was only one more musician , but this wasn´t thought by a guitar player. “The ignorant doesn´t know where the hardness begins”.
There are many elements which could explain the autism grade and a savant syndrome grade on Johnson´s personality and they would describe his life and his legend in a reasonable way.
THE THEORY OF THE AUTISM.
We´re adding two more concepts to the Johnson´s myth from “ The Theory of the Autism”:
The “Ancestral Knowledge “ called by some psychologists .
The “Morphogenetic Fields Learning” by the English biologist Rupert Sheldrake.
These two concepts don´t refer to the knowledge sharing by conventional ways and accepted by tradition , but using procedures which are further in time and space.
Rupert Sheldrake introduced on his book called “A New Life Science” the “Morphogenetic Fields Theory” just as he calls the no-local fields. These fields permit to share the information , knowledge and learning on the same kind organisms , without the space and time effects measurement.
I wouldn´t want to enlarge this topic anymore. I only wish to say that the sudden abilities , which appear with the Savant Syndrome , could be explained from the Morphogenetic Fields Theory of Rudolf Sheldrake.
I´m going to end this subject “Myths and realities of the Blues (Robert Johnson Artist or Autist)” , establishing the causes of Robert Johnson to let out “The Devil” matter instead of deny it.
At those ages, to be black was dangerous in that environment and geographical situation. The previous could be something superficial and anecdotic, but as I´m commenting , it is actually important in the devil legend and in the Johnson ´s death.
I explain by myself and I´m going to tell a history about it:
“A man who had just been confined , found a friend, and this person began to clarify him the jail´s function and the other prisioner´s details: This guy gets women, that guy gets drugs, this other gets books , the other is friend, etc.
All of a sudden ., they saw a person , who showed off all kind of things except to be dangerous , coming to them. He had a very special size, face and walking .
All persons let him to pass freely , even the bravest ones. His friends said him : You must never get away with that little man. He is very dangerous. He killed his wife by slashing her so many times and she had to drawn off in several bags . he is so bloody!
A good day , that little man confessed : I didn´t kill my wife. I´m not able to kill a fly…When I noticed by myself, I was confined and pressed. And suddenly, I began to see those men, who were laughing and despising me , how they respected me by now”.
Could something similar have happened to Johnson ?
He was an artist, a musician. He was not a rude man. He could have suffered several hits in a fighting, not only from the police, but from another black men. Suddenly, the meeting with the devil tale was rising from nowhere and this gave Johnson a kind of respect. He was considered by the men as a respectful man . The women appreciated him as an attractive man due to his legend. This was suitable for Johnson, because it gave him a quite special halo.
The Johnson and the Devil legend rose from the ignorance towards the unknown .
His murder…If he was really killed …rises from the same place. It rises from the fright to the man who talked with the devil.
Who killed him? isn´t the correct question.
What persons killed him? is the correct question.
This subject would be considered as a plot such as a lonely killer has done.
Who? A jealous musician, a resentful woman , an angry husband and overall , the fright, the ignorance and the cowardice to life!
“The whole unique knowledge of the mankind is the life hasn´t an objective”: Leon Tolsoi.
The author : Juan Avila.
