Steve Cropper, musician of the famed band Booker T & the MGs, has died at the age of 84
Steve Cropper, the acclaimed guitarist with Booker T and the MGs, has passed away at the age of 84.
The artist, who contributed to and co-wrote Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, succumbed this past Wednesday in Nashville.
Considered among the finest studio bands in the history of soul music, the four-piece band the MGs was the house band of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax Records and is best remembered for their 1962 track Green Onions.
Cropper also joined the comedy music group The Blues Brothers in the late '70s and played on their hit cover of Soul Man.
"Steve was a beloved guitarist, composer, and producer whose extraordinary talent touched millions of lives around the world," his family stated in a release.
"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a loved one and companion, we find comfort knowing that Steve will be remembered through his music," they added.
A cause of death was not immediately known.
An associate, Eddie Gore, recalled he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating fresh material.
"He's such a wonderful human," Gore remarked. "We were fortunate to have him, for sure."
An Illustrious Journey
Named the number two guitarist of all time by a music periodical in 1996, Cropper began working at Stax in 1961 at the age of 20.
A year later, the MGs came together, featuring keyboardist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964.
The band was entered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.
"I've always thought of myself as a player who focuses on rhythm," Cropper remarked in a previous conversation. "I take pride in the fact that I can play something consistently, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They are reluctant to repeat the same lick twice."
Not only was he a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and in addition to Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he helped write Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.
According to available information, he was "integral to nearly all record put out by Stax from late 1961 through year end 1970".
"We would truly spend long days in the studio," Cropper said. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists signed to the label, so we had a pretty busy schedule."