🔗 Share this article

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

The guitar virtuoso, who played on and helped pen the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, died this past Wednesday in Nashville.

Often cited among the best backing bands in soul and R&B, the four-piece band the MGs was the core musical unit of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax/Volt and is most famous for their 1962 instrumental track Green Onions.

Cropper went on to join the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and featured on their popular rendition of Soul Man.

"Steve was a cherished guitarist, composer, and producer whose immense talent impacted generations around the world," his family expressed in a message.

"While we mourn the loss of a loved one and companion, we take solace knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they noted.

A specific cause was not disclosed.

A friend, Eddie Gore, recalled he was with Cropper just the day before in Nashville, where the guitarist was developing new music.

"He's such a kind human," Gore remarked. "We were lucky to have him, for sure."

A Prolific Career

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

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

The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

"I've always considered myself to be a rhythm guitarist," Cropper remarked in a past interview. "I take pride in the fact that I can play something over and over, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They are reluctant to repeat the same riff twice."

In addition to being a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and in addition to Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he helped write Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.

According to available information, he was "involved in nearly all record put out by Stax from late 1961 through year end 1970".

"We would literally spend marathon sessions 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."