Hundreds of vinyl albums from the personal collection of the late Jimmy Johnson, Muscle Shoals Sound Studio co-founder and Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section founding member, will go on sale at Vintage South Marketplace’s Muscle Shoals location on October 9.
The collection consists of records Johnson personally engineered, wrote, produced, played on and more. These albums from his personal collection – many of which are promotional rarities and sealed unopened originals – include records from major recording artists from the 1960s to today like The Rolling Stones, Bob Seger and Lynyrd Skynyrd, among hundreds of others.
Johnson passed away in 2019 at the age of 76. He was a successful and talented session guitarist, engineer and record producer from Muscle Shoals. He gained prominence when originally attached to Rick Hall’s FAME Studios in the 1960s, before co-founding one of America’s most storied music studios, Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, in 1969, along with drummer Roger Hawkins, bassist David Hood, and keyboardist Barry Beckett. These four became affectionately known as “The Swampers,” a name infamously mentioned in Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama.”
Johnson’s notable discography includes Colbert County native Percy Sledge’s iconic classic “When a Man Loves a Woman,” Wilson Pickett’s “Land of 1,000 Dances,” and “Mustang Sally,” Etta James’ “Tell Mama,” The Rolling Stones’ “Brown Sugar,” “Sticky Fingers,” and “Wild Horses,” Bob Seger’s “Night Moves,” “Main Street,” and “Old Time Rock and Roll,” Aretha Franklin’s “I Never Loved a Man the Way I Loved You,” and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Street Survivors,” “Skynyrd’s First…and Last,” and “Platinum and Gold,” among hundreds of others.
Johnson and the rest of the “Swampers” were inducted into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame in 1995 and the Musician’s Hall of Fame in 2008. His Fender Telecaster guitar is on display at Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Contact Vintage South Marketplace for more information on the sale.
Sara Watkins is a contributing writer for Yellowhammer News and SoulGrown Alabama. You can find her on Instagram here.
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