Steve Cropper, guitarist of the soul group Booker T & the MGs, has passed away aged 84
Steve Cropper, the renowned guitarist with the seminal soul group Booker T & the MGs, has left us at the age of 84.
The guitar virtuoso, who played on and helped pen Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, succumbed on Wednesday in the city of Nashville.
Considered among the greatest backing bands in soul and R&B, the four-piece band Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the core musical unit of the influential Memphis label Stax/Volt and is most famous for their 1962 track Green Onions.
Cropper later became a member of the comedy music group The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and featured on their popular rendition of Soul Man.
"Steve was a cherished artist, writer, and producer whose profound talent inspired countless people around the world," his family said in a release.
"While we grieve the loss of a loved one and companion, we take solace knowing that Steve will be remembered through his music," they noted.
A specific cause was not immediately known.
A colleague, Eddie Gore, stated he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist had been working on new music.
"He's such a kind human," Gore remarked. "We were fortunate to have him, for sure."
A Storied Musical Path
Voted the number two guitarist of all time by a music periodical in 1996, Cropper first found employment at the Stax label in 1961 at the age of 20.
A year later, the MGs were formed, 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 thought of myself as a rhythm player," Cropper said in a past interview. "I take pride in the fact that I can play something consistently, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They refuse to play the same lick twice."
Not only was he a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and in addition to 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 the fall of 1961 through the end of 1970".
"We would truly spend long days in the studio," Cropper said. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists on the roster, so we had a pretty busy schedule."
