Steve Cropper, member of the famed band Booker T & the MGs, has died at the age of 84
Steve Cropper, the celebrated guitarist with the seminal soul group Booker T & the MGs, has died at the age of 84.
The musician, who played on and collaborated on writing Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, succumbed recently in the city of Nashville.
Considered among the finest studio bands in soul and R&B, the quartet Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the house band of the influential Memphis label Stax and is best remembered for their classic 1962 track Green Onions.
Cropper went on to join the comedy music group The Blues Brothers in the late 1970s and played on their hit cover of Soul Man.
"Steve was a beloved artist, writer, and producer whose extraordinary talent inspired generations around the world," his family said in a message.
"While we mourn the loss of a loved one and companion, we are consoled knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they added.
A reason for his passing was not immediately known.
A friend, Eddie Gore, stated he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating new songs.
"He's such a wonderful human," Gore remarked. "We were blessed to have him, for sure."
An Illustrious Journey
Ranked the number two guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper started his career at Stax Records in 1961 at the age of 20.
A year later, the MGs were founded, consisting of 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 said in a previous conversation. "I enjoy the fact that I can play something over and over, while other guitar players don't want to even know about that. They are reluctant to repeat the same phrase twice."
In addition to being a guitarist, Cropper was a productive songwriter, and besides Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he collaborated on Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.
According to historical accounts, he was "a part of nearly all record released by Stax from late 1961 through year end 1970".
"We would truly spend marathon sessions in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists we worked with, so we had a extremely demanding schedule."
