The iconic guitarist Steve Cropper, guitarist of Booker T and the MGs, has died aged 84
Steve Cropper, the celebrated guitarist with the iconic band 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, died recently in the city of Nashville.
Often cited among the finest studio bands in the history of soul music, the four-piece band the MGs was the house band of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax and is most famous 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 popular rendition of Soul Man.
"Steve was a cherished guitarist, composer, and producer whose profound talent inspired millions of lives around the world," his family said in a release.
"While we mourn the loss of a husband, father, and friend, we are consoled knowing that Steve will live forever through his music," they continued.
A specific cause was not immediately known.
A colleague, Eddie Gore, recalled he was with Cropper on Tuesday in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating new music.
"He's such a wonderful human," Gore remarked. "We were blessed to have him, for sure."
An Illustrious Journey
Ranked the number two guitarist of all time by a music periodical in 1996, Cropper first found employment at Stax Records in 1961 at the age of 20.
A year later, the MGs were formed, featuring keyboardist 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 seen myself as a rhythm player," Cropper explained in a previous conversation. "I take pride in the fact that I can play something over and over, 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 productive 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 "integral to the majority of record put out by Stax from late 1961 through 1970".
"We would often spend long days in the studio," Cropper noted in an interview. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists signed to the label, so we had a extremely demanding schedule."
