Steve Cropper, member of Booker T and the MGs, dies at the age of 84
Steve Cropper, the acclaimed guitarist with Booker T and the MGs, has passed away at the age of 84.
The guitar virtuoso, who contributed to and collaborated on writing the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, passed away this past Wednesday in Nashville.
Widely regarded among the best studio bands in soul music, the group Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the house band of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax and is best remembered for their 1962 track Green Onions.
Cropper later became a member of the comedy music group The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and performed on their popular rendition of Soul Man.
"Steve was a deeply admired guitarist, composer, and producer whose extraordinary talent touched countless people around the world," his family expressed in a release.
"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a loved one and companion, we find comfort knowing that Steve will be remembered through his music," they added.
A cause of death was not released at this time.
A friend, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper just the day before in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating new music.
"He's such a wonderful human," Gore said. "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 came together, 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 entered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.
"I've always seen myself as a player who focuses on rhythm," Cropper said in a previous conversation. "I get off on the fact that I can play something repeatedly, while other guitar players wouldn't consider it. They refuse to play the same riff twice."
As well as 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 available information, he was "a part of the majority of record issued by Stax from the fall of 1961 through year end 1970".
"We would truly spend 15 hours a day in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had nearly 20 artists on the roster, so we had a pretty busy schedule."
