Legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, musician of Booker T and the MGs, has died at the age of 84
Esteemed musician Steve Cropper, the renowned guitarist with the seminal soul group Booker T & the MGs, has passed away at the age of 84.
The musician, who performed on and co-wrote the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, succumbed this past Wednesday in the city of Nashville.
Considered among the greatest backing bands in the history of soul music, the four-piece band the MGs was the house band of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax/Volt and is most famous for their 1962 instrumental 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 popular rendition of Soul Man.
"Steve was a deeply admired artist, writer, and producer whose extraordinary talent inspired countless people around the world," his family stated in a statement.
"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a family man and friend, we are consoled knowing that Steve will live forever through his music," they added.
A specific cause was not disclosed.
A friend, Eddie Gore, recalled he was with Cropper on Tuesday in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating fresh material.
"He's such a wonderful human," Gore remarked. "We were blessed to have him, for sure."
A Storied Musical Path
Ranked the runner-up for guitarist of all time by a music periodical in 1996, Cropper began working at the Stax label in 1961 at the age of 20.
A year later, the MGs were founded, consisting of 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 player who focuses on rhythm," Cropper said in a past interview. "I get off on the fact that I can play something repeatedly, while other guitar players wouldn't consider it. They won't even play the same riff twice."
Not only was he a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and alongside Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he collaborated on 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 the end of 1970".
"We would literally spend marathon sessions in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had a roster of artists on the roster, so we had a pretty busy schedule."