Steve Cropper, guitarist of Booker T and the MGs, dies at the age of 84

Steve Cropper, the renowned guitarist with the iconic band Booker T & the MGs, has left us 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 recently in Music City, Nashville.

Considered among the greatest studio bands in soul music, the group the MGs was the core musical unit of the groundbreaking 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 performed on their hit cover of Soul Man.

"Steve was a beloved musician, songwriter, and producer whose immense talent touched countless people around the world," his family expressed in a statement.

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

A reason for his passing was not disclosed.

An associate, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper just the day before in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating new songs.

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

A Storied Musical Path

Voted the second-best 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 were founded, 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 rhythm player," Cropper said in a past interview. "I get off on the fact that I can play something repeatedly, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They refuse to play the same lick twice."

Not only was he a guitarist, Cropper was a vastly creative 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 historical accounts, he was "a part of virtually every record put out by Stax from the fall of 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 17 or 18 artists signed to the label, so we had a very hectic schedule."