The iconic guitarist Steve Cropper, guitarist of Booker T and the MGs, has died at the age of 84
The legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, the acclaimed guitarist with Booker T and the MGs, has left us at the age of 84.
The musician, who played on and helped pen Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, passed away on Wednesday in Music City, Nashville.
Often cited among the greatest supporting groups in the history of soul music, the group Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the house band of the historic Memphis label Stax Records and is best remembered for their 1962 instrumental track Green Onions.
Cropper also joined the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the late 1970s and played on their successful version of Soul Man.
"Steve was a deeply admired artist, writer, and producer whose profound talent inspired millions of lives around the world," his family stated in a release.
"While we mourn the loss of a husband, father, and friend, we take solace knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they added.
A specific cause was not immediately known.
A colleague, Eddie Gore, mentioned 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 Prolific Career
Voted the runner-up for 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 were formed, featuring organist 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 rhythm guitarist," Cropper explained in a previous conversation. "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 won't even play the same riff twice."
In addition to being a guitarist, Cropper was a vastly creative songwriter, and alongside Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he helped write Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.
According to his official biography, he was "a part of the majority of record released by Stax from late 1961 through 1970".
"We would truly spend long days in the studio," Cropper noted in an interview. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists on the roster, so we had a very hectic schedule."
