Legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, member of the famed band Booker T & the MGs, has died aged 84
Esteemed musician Steve Cropper, the renowned guitarist with the iconic band Booker T & the MGs, has passed away at the age of 84.
The guitar virtuoso, who performed on and helped pen Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, died this past Wednesday in Nashville.
Widely regarded among the greatest studio bands in soul music, the four-piece band Booker T & the MGs was the resident studio band of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax/Volt and is best remembered for their 1962 instrumental track Green Onions.
Cropper also joined the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and performed on their popular rendition of Soul Man.
"Steve was a beloved artist, writer, and producer whose immense talent touched millions of lives around the world," his family stated in a statement.
"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a husband, father, and friend, we are consoled knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they noted.
A specific cause was not immediately known.
A friend, Eddie Gore, recalled he was with Cropper just the day before in Nashville, where the guitarist was developing new music.
"He's such a good human," Gore said. "We were lucky to have him, for sure."
A Storied Musical Path
Voted the runner-up for guitarist of all time by a music periodical in 1996, Cropper started his career at the Stax label in 1961 at the age of 20.
A year later, the MGs were formed, consisting of keyboardist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was succeeded 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 player who focuses on rhythm," Cropper explained in a past interview. "I get off on the fact that I can play something repeatedly, while other guitar players don't want to even know about that. They are reluctant to repeat the same riff twice."
As well as a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and in addition to Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he helped write Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.
According to historical accounts, he was "involved in nearly all record issued by Stax from late 1961 through 1970".
"We would often spend 15 hours a day in the studio," Cropper noted in an interview. "I think we had a roster of artists we worked with, so we had a very hectic schedule."
