Steve Cropper, guitarist of the famed band Booker T & the MGs, has died at the age of 84
The legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, the acclaimed guitarist with Booker T and the MGs, has died at the age of 84.
The artist, who performed on and helped pen the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, succumbed this past Wednesday in the city of Nashville.
Widely regarded among the best backing bands in the history of soul music, the four-piece band Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the core musical unit of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax/Volt and is best remembered for their classic 1962 track Green Onions.
Cropper later became a member of the blues revival band 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 millions of lives around the world," his family expressed in a message.
"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a family man and friend, we are consoled knowing that Steve will be remembered through his music," they added.
A specific cause was not immediately known.
An associate, Eddie Gore, recalled he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist was developing new music.
"He's such a good human," Gore commented. "We were fortunate to have him, for sure."
A Prolific Career
Ranked the second-best guitarist of all time by a music periodical in 1996, Cropper first found employment at Stax in 1961 at the age of 20.
A year later, the MGs were founded, featuring keyboardist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was succeeded by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964.
The band was honored by inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.
"I've always thought of myself as a rhythm guitarist," Cropper said in a previous conversation. "I get off on the fact that I can play something repeatedly, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They won't even play the same lick twice."
Not only was he a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and alongside Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he helped write Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.
According to his official biography, he was "a part of virtually every record issued by Stax from late 1961 through year end 1970".
"We would truly spend 15 hours a day in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had a roster of artists we worked with, so we had a extremely demanding schedule."