🔗 Share this article

The legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, the celebrated guitarist with the iconic band Booker T & the MGs, has left us at the age of 84.

The musician, who performed on and collaborated on writing the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, passed away on Wednesday in the city of Nashville.

Often cited among the finest studio bands in the history of soul music, the group Booker T. Jones and the MGs was the house band of the influential Memphis label Stax Records and is best remembered for their 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper went on to join the comedy music group The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and featured on their successful version of Soul Man.

"Steve was a deeply admired guitarist, composer, and producer whose extraordinary talent inspired countless people around the world," his family stated in a statement.

"While we grieve the loss of a family man and friend, we are consoled knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they noted.

A specific cause was not released at this time.

A friend, Eddie Gore, recalled he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist had been working on fresh material.

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

An Illustrious Journey

Voted the runner-up for guitarist of all time by a UK publication in 1996, Cropper began working at Stax Records in 1961 at the age of 20.

A year later, the MGs came together, featuring keyboardist 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 seen myself as a rhythm guitarist," Cropper remarked in a past interview. "I get off on the fact that I can play something over and over, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They refuse to play the same phrase twice."

Not only was he 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 "integral to nearly all record put out by Stax from the fall of 1961 through year end 1970".

"We would truly spend marathon sessions in the studio," Cropper noted in an interview. "I think we had nearly 20 artists we worked with, so we had a pretty busy schedule."