Legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, musician of the famed band Booker T & the MGs, has died at the age of 84
Steve Cropper, the celebrated guitarist with Booker T and the MGs, has died at the age of 84.
The guitar virtuoso, who performed on and co-wrote Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, succumbed this past Wednesday in Music City, Nashville.
Considered among the best supporting groups in soul music, the group the MGs was the house band of the historic Memphis label Stax Records and is primarily known for their 1962 track Green Onions.
Cropper went on to join the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the late 1970s and played on their hit cover of Soul Man.
"Steve was a beloved guitarist, composer, and producer whose profound talent impacted millions of lives around the world," his family stated in a statement.
"While we grieve the loss of a husband, father, and friend, we take solace knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they added.
A specific cause was not immediately known.
An associate, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper just the day before in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating new songs.
"He's such a good human," Gore remarked. "We were fortunate to have him, for sure."
A Prolific Career
Voted the runner-up for 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 came together, comprising 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 seen myself as a rhythm player," Cropper explained in a previous conversation. "I get off on the fact that I can play something repeatedly, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They refuse to play the same lick twice."
As well as a guitarist, Cropper was a vastly creative songwriter, and alongside Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he collaborated on Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.
According to his official biography, he was "involved in the majority of record put out by Stax from 1961 through the end of 1970".
"We would literally spend long days in the studio," Cropper said. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists we worked with, so we had a extremely demanding schedule."
