The iconic guitarist Steve Cropper, member of the soul group Booker T & the MGs, has died aged 84
Esteemed musician Steve Cropper, the renowned guitarist with the iconic band Booker T & the MGs, has died at the age of 84.
The artist, who performed on and co-wrote Otis Redding's 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 best studio bands in soul music, the quartet Booker T & the MGs was the resident studio band of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax and is most famous for their 1962 track Green Onions.
Cropper also joined the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the late '70s and performed on their hit cover of Soul Man.
"Steve was a deeply admired artist, writer, and producer whose profound talent impacted millions of lives around the world," his family expressed in a release.
"While we grieve the loss of a family man and friend, we find comfort knowing that Steve will be remembered through his music," they added.
A cause of death was not disclosed.
A friend, Eddie Gore, stated 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 commented. "We were lucky to have him, for sure."
A Prolific Career
Voted the number two guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper started his career at Stax Records 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 succeeded by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964.
The band was entered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.
"I've always thought of myself as a rhythm player," Cropper said in a past interview. "I enjoy the fact that I can play something consistently, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They won't even play the same phrase twice."
As well as a guitarist, Cropper was a vastly creative 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 his official biography, he was "integral to the majority of record released by Stax from 1961 through year end 1970".
"We would literally spend 15 hours a day in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had a roster of artists signed to the label, so we had a pretty busy schedule."
