Steve Cropper, musician of the famed band Booker T & the MGs, has died at the age of 84
The legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, the renowned guitarist with the iconic band Booker T & the MGs, has left us at the age of 84.
The artist, 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 Nashville.
Widely regarded among the finest supporting groups in the history of soul music, the quartet Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the resident studio band of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax/Volt and is most famous for their 1962 instrumental track Green Onions.
Cropper also joined the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the late '70s and performed on their successful version of Soul Man.
"Steve was a deeply admired artist, writer, and producer whose extraordinary talent touched millions of lives around the world," his family said in a statement.
"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a loved one and companion, we take solace knowing that Steve will live forever through his music," they continued.
A specific cause was not immediately known.
A colleague, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper just the day before in Nashville, where the guitarist was developing fresh material.
"He's such a good human," Gore said. "We were fortunate to have him, for sure."
A Storied Musical Path
Voted the runner-up for 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 were founded, comprising organist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was succeeded 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 thought of myself as a rhythm player," Cropper remarked in a past interview. "I get off on the fact that I can play something consistently, while other guitar players don't want to even know about that. They are reluctant to repeat the same phrase twice."
As well as 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 available information, he was "involved in the majority of record issued by Stax from 1961 through year end 1970".
"We would often spend marathon sessions in the studio," Cropper said. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists we worked with, so we had a very hectic schedule."
