Legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, member 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 died at the age of 84.
The guitar virtuoso, who performed on and collaborated on writing the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, succumbed recently in Music City, Nashville.
Often cited among the finest studio bands in the history of soul music, the quartet Booker T & the MGs was the resident studio band of the influential Memphis label Stax Records and is most famous for their 1962 track Green Onions.
Cropper later became a member of the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the late 1970s and featured on their hit cover of Soul Man.
"Steve was a cherished guitarist, composer, and producer whose profound talent impacted generations around the world," his family said in a statement.
"While we grieve the loss of a family man and friend, we find comfort knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they noted.
A cause of death was not immediately known.
A colleague, Eddie Gore, stated he was with Cropper just the day before in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating new songs.
"He's such a good human," Gore remarked. "We were fortunate to have him, for sure."
A Storied Musical Path
Named the number two guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper started his career at the Stax label in 1961 at the age of 20.
A year later, the MGs came together, comprising organist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964.
The band was honored by inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.
"I've always seen myself as a rhythm guitarist," Cropper explained in a previous conversation. "I take pride in 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."
As well as a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and besides 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 "involved in nearly all record put out by Stax from the fall of 1961 through 1970".
"We would truly spend long days in the studio," Cropper said. "I think we had nearly 20 artists signed to the label, so we had a pretty busy schedule."
