🔗 Share this article

Esteemed musician Steve Cropper, the acclaimed guitarist with the seminal soul group Booker T & the MGs, has left us at the age of 84.

The musician, who played on and co-wrote Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, succumbed recently in the city of Nashville.

Widely regarded among the greatest supporting groups in soul and R&B, the four-piece band the MGs was the resident studio band of the influential Memphis label Stax/Volt and is best remembered for their 1962 instrumental track Green Onions.

Cropper went on to join the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd act The Blues Brothers in the late '70s and featured on their successful version of Soul Man.

"Steve was a beloved artist, writer, and producer whose profound talent inspired countless people around the world," his family stated in a statement.

"While we grieve the loss of a loved one and companion, we find comfort knowing that Steve will be remembered through his music," they added.

A reason for his passing was not released at this time.

A friend, Eddie Gore, stated he was with Cropper just the day before in Nashville, where the guitarist was developing fresh material.

"He's such a good human," Gore said. "We were fortunate to have him, for sure."

A Prolific Career

Named the second-best guitarist of all time by a UK publication in 1996, Cropper began working at Stax in 1961 at the age of 20.

A year later, the MGs came together, comprising keyboardist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was succeeded by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964.

The band was honored by inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

"I've always seen myself as a player who focuses on rhythm," Cropper explained in a past interview. "I get off on the fact that I can play something repeatedly, while other guitar players wouldn't consider it. They won't even play the same phrase twice."

Not only was he a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and besides Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he helped write Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.

According to his official biography, he was "a part of virtually every record issued by Stax from the fall of 1961 through 1970".

"We would literally spend long days in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists signed to the label, so we had a very hectic schedule."