Steve Cropper, member of the soul group Booker T & the MGs, has died aged 84
Esteemed musician 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 contributed to and helped pen Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, succumbed this past Wednesday in Music City, Nashville.
Considered among the greatest studio bands in soul and R&B, the four-piece band Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the resident studio band of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax/Volt and is best remembered for their classic 1962 track Green Onions.
Cropper also joined the comedy music group The Blues Brothers in the late '70s and featured on their hit cover of Soul Man.
"Steve was a beloved artist, writer, and producer whose profound talent touched millions of lives around the world," his family stated in a statement.
"While we grieve the loss of a family man and friend, we take solace knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they added.
A cause of death was not released at this time.
A friend, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper on Tuesday in Nashville, where the guitarist had been working on new songs.
"He's such a kind human," Gore said. "We were fortunate to have him, for sure."
An Illustrious Journey
Named the second-best 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 formed, comprising 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 thought of myself as a player who focuses on rhythm," Cropper said in a past interview. "I enjoy the fact that I can play something repeatedly, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They won't even play 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 collaborated on 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 the end of 1970".
"We would literally spend 15 hours a day in the studio," Cropper noted in an interview. "I think we had a roster of artists on the roster, so we had a pretty busy schedule."
