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Steve Cropper, the legendary guitarist whose work as an instrumentalist, producer and songwriter at Stax Records left an indelible impression on Memphis soul music, has died at the age of 84.
Hs son Cameron confirmed his death to Variety.
A prolific musician, Cropper was best known as the guitarist in Booker T & the MGs, an interracial soul quartet widely considered the best backing band in soul music, and perhaps still best remembered for their timeless blues track Green Onions. But Cropper’s distinctive guitar work animated many of the tracks out of Stax Records, the influential Memphis soul label that released a string of international hits by such soul luminaries as Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Rufus and Carla Thomas, and Eddie Floyd.
Cropper played, and sometimes produced and engineered, on the MG tracks Soul-Limbo and Time is Tight, and such huge R&B hits as Redding’s (Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay and Mr Pitiful; on Pickett’s In the Midnight Hour and 634-5789; on Floyd’s Knock On Wood and Raise Your Hand; and Don Covay’s See Saw and Sookie Sookie.
In 1996, British music magazine Mojo declared Cropper the second-best guitarist of all time, behind only Jimi Hendrix.
Raised in Memphis and a guitarist since the age of 14, Cropper began working at the Stax Records store and studio at the age of 20, in 1961, after playing with saxophonist Charles “Packy” Axton, whose mother and uncle, Estelle Axton and Jim Stewart, launched the fledgling label out of a storefront record shop and adjoining movie house. An afternoon of noodling around in the studio with three fellow musicians – Booker T Jones, Donald “Duck” Dunn and Al Jackson Jr – yielded Green Onions, the track that put Stax on the map. The song reached No 1 on the R&B charts and No 3 on the pop side.
Along with the rest of the MGs, Cropper served as the Stax house backing band, helping cut records for dozens of artists. “We would literally spend 15 hours a day in the studio,” Cropper told the Guardian in 2012. “I think we had 17 or 18 artists on the roster, so we had a pretty busy schedule.”
Although Cropper parted ways with the label in 1970 due to issues with the front office, Booker T & the MGs continued to regroup for recording sessions and tours from the 70s through the 90s, and backed such artists as Neil Young, Bob Dylan, John Fogerty and the Band’s Levon Helm.
Cropper also found success post-Stax as the lead guitarist for John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd’s musical act the Blues Brothers, playing on their 1978 album Briefcase Full of Blues as well as four other albums. He also appeared in the 1980 feature The Blues Brothers and its 1998 sequel Blues Brothers 2000. Cropper continued to record and release music late into his life, with four solo albums released after the year 2000.
As a member of the MGs, Cropper was inducted into the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame in 1992. He is survived by his wife Angel and four children.
