Steve Cropper, member of the famed band Booker T & the MGs, has died aged 84
Esteemed musician Steve Cropper, the renowned guitarist with the iconic band Booker T & the MGs, has left us at the age of 84.
The guitar virtuoso, who performed on and co-wrote the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, died this past Wednesday in Nashville.
Widely regarded among the greatest backing bands in soul and R&B, the quartet Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the resident studio band of the historic Memphis label Stax Records and is most famous for their 1962 track Green Onions.
Cropper went on to join the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and performed on their successful version of Soul Man.
"Steve was a beloved musician, songwriter, and producer whose immense talent impacted countless people around the world," his family said in a release.
"While we mourn the loss of a loved one and companion, we take solace knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they continued.
A cause of death was not disclosed.
A friend, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist had been working on fresh material.
"He's such a wonderful human," Gore commented. "We were blessed to have him, for sure."
A Storied Musical Path
Named the second-best guitarist of all time by a UK publication in 1996, Cropper began working 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 replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964.
The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.
"I've always thought of myself as a rhythm player," Cropper remarked in a past interview. "I enjoy the fact that I can play something over and over, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They refuse to play the same lick twice."
In addition to being a guitarist, Cropper was a vastly creative songwriter, and alongside 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 "involved in virtually every record issued by Stax from the fall of 1961 through 1970".
"We would literally spend 15 hours a day in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had a roster of artists on the roster, so we had a extremely demanding schedule."
