Steve Cropper, guitarist of the famed band Booker T & the MGs, has died at the age of 84
Steve Cropper, the celebrated guitarist with the seminal soul group Booker T & the MGs, has passed away at the age of 84.
The guitar virtuoso, who contributed to and helped pen the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, passed away this past Wednesday in Nashville.
Considered among the finest backing bands in soul and R&B, the quartet the MGs was the resident studio band of the influential Memphis label Stax Records and is primarily known for their 1962 instrumental track Green Onions.
Cropper went on to join the comedy music group The Blues Brothers in the late 1970s and featured on their hit cover of Soul Man.
"Steve was a deeply admired guitarist, composer, and producer whose immense talent touched millions of lives around the world," his family said in a message.
"While we grieve the loss of a loved one and companion, we take solace knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they noted.
A cause of death was not disclosed.
A colleague, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper on Tuesday in Nashville, where the guitarist had been working on fresh material.
"He's such a wonderful human," Gore remarked. "We were fortunate to have him, for sure."
A Storied Musical Path
Voted the second-best 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 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 enjoy the fact that I can play something over and over, while other guitar players don't want to even know about that. They are reluctant to repeat the same riff twice."
In addition to being a guitarist, Cropper was a productive songwriter, and in addition to 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 the majority of record issued by Stax from the fall of 1961 through year end 1970".
"We would truly spend 15 hours a day in the studio," Cropper noted in an interview. "I think we had nearly 20 artists we worked with, so we had a pretty busy schedule."
