The iconic guitarist Steve Cropper, member of the soul group Booker T & the MGs, has died at the age of 84
Steve Cropper, the renowned guitarist with the seminal soul group Booker T & the MGs, has passed away at the age of 84.
The artist, who performed on and co-wrote the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, succumbed this past Wednesday in Music City, Nashville.
Widely regarded among the greatest backing bands in the history of soul music, the group Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the core musical unit of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax and is most famous for their 1962 instrumental track Green Onions.
Cropper also joined the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd act The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and played on their successful version of Soul Man.
"Steve was a deeply admired guitarist, composer, and producer whose immense talent inspired millions of lives around the world," his family said in a release.
"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a husband, father, and friend, we are consoled knowing that Steve will be remembered through his music," they noted.
A specific cause was not immediately known.
A colleague, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper just the day before in Nashville, where the guitarist was developing new songs.
"He's such a kind human," Gore said. "We were blessed to have him, for sure."
A Prolific Career
Ranked the second-best guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper started his career at the Stax label in 1961 at the age of 20.
A year later, the MGs came together, featuring organist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was succeeded by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964.
The band was entered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.
"I've always considered myself to be a player who focuses on rhythm," Cropper explained in a past interview. "I enjoy the fact that I can play something over and over, while other guitar players don't want to even know about that. They refuse to play the same phrase 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 available information, he was "a part of virtually every record released by Stax from late 1961 through year end 1970".
"We would truly spend marathon sessions in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had nearly 20 artists on the roster, so we had a pretty busy schedule."
