Steve Cropper, musician of Booker T and the MGs, has died at the age of 84
The legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, the celebrated guitarist with the seminal soul group Booker T & the MGs, has died at the age of 84.
The guitar virtuoso, who performed on and collaborated on writing Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, passed away recently in the city of Nashville.
Widely regarded among the greatest backing bands in soul music, the four-piece band Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the core musical unit of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax Records and is primarily known for their 1962 instrumental track Green Onions.
Cropper also joined the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and played on their hit cover of Soul Man.
"Steve was a beloved artist, writer, and producer whose profound talent impacted countless people around the world," his family expressed in a statement.
"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a family man and friend, we are consoled knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they noted.
A cause of death was not disclosed.
A colleague, Eddie Gore, recalled he was with Cropper on Tuesday in Nashville, where the guitarist was developing fresh material.
"He's such a wonderful human," Gore remarked. "We were lucky to have him, for sure."
An Illustrious Journey
Voted the runner-up for guitarist of all time by a UK publication in 1996, Cropper began working at Stax Records in 1961 at the age of 20.
A year later, the MGs came together, comprising keyboardist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was succeeded by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964.
The band was entered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.
"I've always seen myself as a rhythm guitarist," Cropper remarked in a past interview. "I get off on the fact that I can play something repeatedly, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They are reluctant to repeat the same riff twice."
As well as a guitarist, Cropper was a productive songwriter, and alongside 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 the majority of record put out by Stax from 1961 through year end 1970".
"We would literally spend 15 hours a day in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had a roster of artists signed to the label, so we had a pretty busy schedule."