The iconic guitarist Steve Cropper, member of the famed band Booker T & the MGs, has died aged 84
Esteemed musician Steve Cropper, the renowned guitarist with the iconic band Booker T & the MGs, has passed away at the age of 84.
The musician, who played on and co-wrote the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, succumbed this past Wednesday in Music City, Nashville.
Often cited among the finest backing bands in the history of soul music, the quartet the MGs was the resident studio band of the influential Memphis label Stax and is best remembered for their 1962 track Green Onions.
Cropper went on to join the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd act The Blues Brothers in the late 1970s and featured on their hit cover of Soul Man.
"Steve was a cherished guitarist, composer, and producer whose profound talent impacted countless people around the world," his family expressed in a release.
"While we mourn the loss of a husband, father, and friend, we find comfort knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they added.
A specific cause was not immediately known.
A colleague, Eddie Gore, recalled he was with Cropper on Tuesday in Nashville, where the guitarist was developing new songs.
"He's such a good human," Gore said. "We were blessed to have him, for sure."
A Prolific Career
Named the runner-up for guitarist of all time by a music periodical in 1996, Cropper began working 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 considered myself to be a rhythm guitarist," Cropper said in a previous conversation. "I get off on the fact that I can play something consistently, while other guitar players wouldn't consider it. They refuse to play the same riff twice."
Not only was he a guitarist, Cropper was a vastly creative 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 "integral to nearly all record issued by Stax from late 1961 through 1970".
"We would often spend long days in the studio," Cropper said. "I think we had a roster of artists we worked with, so we had a pretty busy schedule."
