Legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, member of Booker T and the MGs, has passed away aged 84
Esteemed musician Steve Cropper, the acclaimed guitarist with the seminal soul group Booker T & the MGs, has left us at the age of 84.
The guitar virtuoso, who contributed to and helped pen Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, succumbed this past Wednesday in the city of Nashville.
Often cited among the finest 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 classic 1962 track Green Onions.
Cropper later became a member of the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the late 1970s and performed on their hit cover of Soul Man.
"Steve was a deeply admired artist, writer, and producer whose immense talent touched countless people around the world," his family stated in a release.
"While we grieve the loss of a husband, father, and friend, we are consoled knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they noted.
A cause of death was not disclosed.
A colleague, Eddie Gore, stated 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 wonderful human," Gore remarked. "We were blessed to have him, for sure."
A Storied Musical Path
Voted the second-best guitarist of all time by a UK publication in 1996, Cropper started his career at Stax Records 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 inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.
"I've always considered myself to be a rhythm guitarist," Cropper explained in a past interview. "I get off on the fact that I can play something consistently, while other guitar players don't want to even know about that. They won't even play the same phrase twice."
In addition to being a guitarist, Cropper was a productive songwriter, and besides 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 "a part of nearly all record put out by Stax from 1961 through year end 1970".
"We would often spend marathon sessions in the studio," Cropper noted in an interview. "I think we had a roster of artists we worked with, so we had a extremely demanding schedule."
