Legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, guitarist of the famed band Booker T & the MGs, has died at the age of 84
Steve Cropper, the renowned guitarist with the seminal soul group Booker T & the MGs, has passed away at the age of 84.
The musician, who performed on and co-wrote the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, passed away this past Wednesday in the city of Nashville.
Widely regarded among the best backing bands in soul and R&B, the group the MGs was the house band of the influential Memphis label Stax/Volt and is best remembered for their classic 1962 track Green Onions.
Cropper later became a member of the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd act The Blues Brothers in the late '70s and played on their successful version of Soul Man.
"Steve was a cherished artist, writer, and producer whose profound talent touched generations around the world," his family said in a release.
"While we mourn the loss of a husband, father, and friend, we take solace knowing that Steve will live forever through his music," they continued.
A specific cause was not immediately known.
An associate, 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 good human," Gore remarked. "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 first found employment at the Stax label 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 replaced 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 player who focuses on rhythm," 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 refuse to play the same riff twice."
In addition to being a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and alongside Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he co-wrote Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.
According to his official biography, he was "a part of nearly all record issued by Stax from late 1961 through 1970".
"We would literally spend long days in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists we worked with, so we had a very hectic schedule."
