Legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, guitarist of the soul group Booker T & the MGs, has died at the age of 84
Steve Cropper, the acclaimed guitarist with the seminal soul group Booker T & the MGs, has left us at the age of 84.
The guitar virtuoso, who contributed to and collaborated on writing the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, succumbed this past Wednesday in Music City, Nashville.
Widely regarded among the finest supporting groups in the history of soul music, the four-piece band Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the core musical unit of the influential Memphis label Stax/Volt and is best remembered for their 1962 track Green Onions.
Cropper went on to join the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd act The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and performed on their popular rendition of Soul Man.
"Steve was a deeply admired artist, writer, and producer whose immense talent touched countless people around the world," his family said in a statement.
"While we grieve the loss of a family man and friend, we are consoled knowing that Steve will be remembered through his music," they noted.
A cause of death was not immediately known.
A friend, Eddie Gore, stated he was with Cropper on Tuesday in Nashville, where the guitarist was developing new songs.
"He's such a good human," Gore commented. "We were blessed to have him, for sure."
An Illustrious Journey
Ranked the runner-up for guitarist of all time by a music periodical in 1996, Cropper began working at the Stax label 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 succeeded by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964.
The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.
"I've always considered myself to be a rhythm guitarist," Cropper said in a previous conversation. "I take pride in the fact that I can play something over and over, 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 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 available information, he was "involved in the majority of record put out by Stax from late 1961 through the end of 1970".
"We would truly spend 15 hours a day in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists on the roster, so we had a extremely demanding schedule."
