Legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, musician of the famed band Booker T & the MGs, has died aged 84
The legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, the acclaimed guitarist with the seminal soul group Booker T & the MGs, has died at the age of 84.
The artist, who contributed to and helped pen the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, died on Wednesday in Music City, Nashville.
Widely regarded among the best studio bands in soul music, the four-piece band Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the house band of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax Records and is best remembered for their classic 1962 track Green Onions.
Cropper also joined the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and featured on their popular rendition of Soul Man.
"Steve was a deeply admired guitarist, composer, and producer whose profound talent touched millions of lives around the world," his family expressed in a message.
"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a husband, father, and friend, we take solace knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they noted.
A cause of death was not immediately known.
A friend, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper recently 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 Storied Musical Path
Ranked the second-best guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper began working at Stax in 1961 at the age of 20.
A year later, the MGs were founded, featuring 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 considered myself to be a rhythm guitarist," Cropper remarked in a past interview. "I enjoy the fact that I can play something repeatedly, 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 productive songwriter, and besides 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 issued by Stax from 1961 through the end of 1970".
"We would literally spend 15 hours a day in the studio," Cropper said. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists we worked with, so we had a extremely demanding schedule."
