Steve Cropper, member of the famed band Booker T & the MGs, has died aged 84
Esteemed musician Steve Cropper, the renowned guitarist with Booker T and the MGs, has died at the age of 84.
The artist, who contributed to and helped pen the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, passed away recently in Nashville.
Widely regarded among the greatest studio bands in soul music, the group Booker T & the MGs was the core musical unit of the influential Memphis label Stax/Volt and is primarily known for their 1962 track Green Onions.
Cropper later became a member of the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd act The Blues Brothers in the late 1970s and performed on their hit cover of Soul Man.
"Steve was a beloved musician, songwriter, and producer whose extraordinary talent impacted millions of lives around the world," his family stated in a release.
"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a family man and friend, we take solace knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they continued.
A cause of death was not disclosed.
An associate, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper just the day before in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating fresh material.
"He's such a wonderful human," Gore commented. "We were fortunate to have him, for sure."
An Illustrious Journey
Ranked the runner-up for guitarist of all time by a music periodical in 1996, Cropper first found employment at Stax Records in 1961 at the age of 20.
A year later, the MGs came together, 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 seen myself as a rhythm guitarist," 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 are reluctant to repeat the same lick 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 "integral to virtually every record issued by Stax from late 1961 through year end 1970".
"We would often spend marathon sessions in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had nearly 20 artists signed to the label, so we had a extremely demanding schedule."
