Steve Cropper, guitarist of the famed band Booker T & the MGs, has died at the age of 84
Esteemed musician Steve Cropper, the renowned guitarist with Booker T and the MGs, has left us at the age of 84.
The artist, 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 on Wednesday in Nashville.
Considered among the greatest studio bands in soul and R&B, the group 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 went on to join the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd act The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and played on their popular rendition of Soul Man.
"Steve was a deeply admired artist, writer, and producer whose extraordinary talent impacted millions of lives around the world," his family stated in a message.
"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 specific cause was not immediately known.
A colleague, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating fresh material.
"He's such a good human," Gore commented. "We were lucky to have him, for sure."
A Storied Musical Path
Named the second-best guitarist of all time by a music periodical in 1996, Cropper began working at Stax Records in 1961 at the age of 20.
A year later, the MGs were formed, featuring keyboardist 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 previous conversation. "I take pride in the fact that I can play something repeatedly, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They refuse to play the same phrase twice."
Not only was he a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and besides Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he co-wrote Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.
According to available information, he was "a part of nearly all record released by Stax from the fall of 1961 through 1970".
"We would truly spend long days in the studio," Cropper noted in an interview. "I think we had nearly 20 artists on the roster, so we had a pretty busy schedule."
