Steve Cropper, member of Booker T and the MGs, dies aged 84
Steve Cropper, the acclaimed guitarist with Booker T and the MGs, has passed away at the age of 84.
The musician, who played on and helped pen Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, passed away recently in Music City, Nashville.
Considered among the finest supporting groups in soul music, the quartet the MGs was the house band of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax and is most famous for their 1962 instrumental track Green Onions.
Cropper went on to join the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and performed on their popular rendition of Soul Man.
"Steve was a deeply admired guitarist, composer, and producer whose immense talent touched generations around the world," his family expressed in a statement.
"While we mourn the loss of a family man and friend, we take solace knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they added.
A specific cause was not immediately known.
A friend, Eddie Gore, recalled he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist was developing fresh material.
"He's such a wonderful human," Gore said. "We were blessed to have him, for sure."
A Prolific Career
Ranked the number two guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper first found employment at the Stax label in 1961 at the age of 20.
A year later, the MGs were founded, comprising 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 seen myself as a rhythm guitarist," Cropper explained in a previous conversation. "I enjoy the fact that I can play something over and over, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They are reluctant to repeat the same riff twice."
In addition to being a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and besides Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he co-wrote Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.
According to historical accounts, he was "integral to virtually every record issued by Stax from late 1961 through 1970".
"We would often spend 15 hours a day in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had nearly 20 artists on the roster, so we had a pretty busy schedule."
