Steve Cropper, musician of Booker T and the MGs, has passed away aged 84
The legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, the celebrated guitarist with Booker T and 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 Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, died this past Wednesday in the city of Nashville.
Considered among the greatest backing bands in the history of soul music, the quartet the MGs was the house band of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax/Volt and is primarily known for their 1962 instrumental track Green Onions.
Cropper also joined the comedy music group The Blues Brothers in the late '70s and featured on their successful version of Soul Man.
"Steve was a cherished musician, songwriter, and producer whose immense talent impacted millions of lives around the world," his family stated in a release.
"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a husband, father, and friend, we are consoled knowing that Steve will live forever through his music," they noted.
A specific cause was not immediately known.
An associate, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating new songs.
"He's such a wonderful human," Gore said. "We were fortunate to have him, for sure."
A Prolific Career
Voted the second-best guitarist of all time by a UK publication in 1996, Cropper began working at the Stax label in 1961 at the age of 20.
A year later, the MGs were formed, 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 seen myself as a rhythm player," Cropper said in a previous conversation. "I take pride in the fact that I can play something consistently, while other guitar players don't want to even know about that. They refuse to play the same riff twice."
As well as a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and besides Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he helped write Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.
According to his official biography, he was "involved in nearly all record released by Stax from late 1961 through the end of 1970".
"We would literally spend long days in the studio," Cropper said. "I think we had a roster of artists signed to the label, so we had a pretty busy schedule."
