Legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, member of the soul group Booker T & the MGs, has died at the age of 84
The legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, the celebrated guitarist with Booker T and the MGs, has died at the age of 84.
The artist, who played on and co-wrote Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, died on Wednesday in the city of Nashville.
Often cited among the greatest supporting groups in soul music, the quartet Booker T & the MGs was the resident studio band of the historic Memphis label Stax Records and is most famous for their 1962 track Green Onions.
Cropper also joined the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and played on their popular rendition of Soul Man.
"Steve was a cherished artist, writer, and producer whose immense talent inspired millions of lives around the world," his family said in a message.
"While we grieve the loss of a family man and friend, we find comfort knowing that Steve will be remembered through his music," they added.
A cause of death was not disclosed.
A friend, Eddie Gore, stated 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 said. "We were fortunate to have him, for sure."
A Prolific Career
Named the number two guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper started his career at the Stax label in 1961 at the age of 20.
A year later, the MGs were formed, consisting of organist 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 considered myself to be a player who focuses on rhythm," Cropper explained in a previous conversation. "I get off on the fact that I can play something repeatedly, while other guitar players don't want to even know about that. They won't even play the same phrase twice."
Not only was he a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and besides 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 issued by Stax from the fall of 1961 through year end 1970".
"We would often spend 15 hours a day in the studio," Cropper noted in an interview. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists signed to the label, so we had a extremely demanding schedule."
