{"id":7134,"date":"2025-12-04T00:35:37","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T00:35:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/steve-cropper-dead-booker-t-mgs-guitarist-1236127896\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T00:35:37","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T00:35:37","slug":"steve-cropper-dead-booker-t-mgs-guitarist-1236127896","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/steve-cropper-dead-booker-t-mgs-guitarist-1236127896\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Cropper, Iconic Booker T & the M.G.\u2019s Guitarist, Dies at\u00a084"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tLegendary guitarist Steve Cropper,<\/a> who played on seminal recordings by such artists as Otis Redding<\/a>, Booker T & the M.G.\u2019s, Wilson Pickett and many more, died Wednesday (Dec. 3) in Nashville. He was 84.<\/p>\n

\n\tCropper\u2019s son confirmed his father\u2019s death on Facebook. \u201cIt\u2019s with the heaviest of hearts that I share the news that my amazing Dad passed away this morning,\u201d Stephen Cropper posted. \u201cHe certainly lived an incredible life and enjoyed every minute of entertaining you all. Please lift prayers of comfort for my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tAs the guitarist for Booker T & the M.G.\u2019s, which served as Stax Records\u2019 house band during the 1960s, Cropper was an architect of the sound, with his ringing, often spare guitar work and deft touch heard on R&B and pop classics including Redding\u2019s \u201c(Sittin\u2019 On) The Dock of the Bay,\u201d \u00a0Eddie Floyd\u2019s \u201cKnock on Wood,\u201d Pickett\u2019s \u201cIn the Midnight Hour\u201d and Sam & Dave\u2019<\/a>s \u201cSoul Man\u201d (Sam Moore immortalized Cropper with his \u201cPlay It, Steve,\u201d ad lib on \u201cSoul Man\u201d).<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSteve Cropper was a towering figure in the history of rock and R&B,\u201d says Steve Greenberg<\/strong>, reissue producer of 1991\u2019s Grammy-winning The Complete Stax-Volt Singles<\/em> box set, who frequently worked with Cropper. \u201cAs one of the all-time great electric guitarists, his unique playing style brought deep character to hits ranging from \u2018Green Onions\u2019 to \u2018Dock of the Bay\u2019 to Rod Stewart\u2019s \u2018Tonight\u2019s the Night.\u2019 Add to that his songwriting and production on classics like \u2018In the Midnight Hour,\u2019 \u2018Knock on Wood\u2019 and, of course, \u2018Dock of the Bay,\u2019 and Steve Cropper goes down as one of the key creators of popular music in the 1960s.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGreenberg also notes the role of Cropper and the band in a racially divisive time. \u201cSteve, along with Duck Dunn, Al Jackson and Booker T. Jones, recording as Booker T. and the M.G.\u2019s,\u00a0were the rare mutiracial group that dared defy the South\u2019s awful color line in the early \u201960s.\u00a0Working together at Stax Studios in segregated Memphis during the most tumultuous years of the civil right movement, they, in a spirit of equality and fraternity,\u00a0created an indelible body of American music.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCropper, who was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 as a member of Booker T & the M.G.\u2019s, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2005, was also a noted producer, telling The New York Times<\/em><\/a> in 2018 that he finished producing \u201c(Sittin\u2019 On) The Dock of the Bay\u201d under great duress following Redding\u2019s death in a plane crash in 1967. \u201cIf I had a week to work on it, it probably would have been overembellished,\u201d he said. Instead, he finished it in less than 24 hours.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe song earned Cropper one his two Grammys, winning for best rhythm & blues song at the 1969 ceremony. Cropper was nominated for nine Grammys, including most recently in 2024 for best contemporary blues album for his set, Friendlytown.<\/em> In addition to \u201cDock of the Bay,\u201d he won at the 1995 ceremony for best pop instrumental performance for the Booker T. & the M.G.\u2019s track \u201cCruisin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCropper experienced a renaissance in 1979 when The Blues Brothers<\/a> emerged. He got a phone call from John Belushi, who was half of the fictional blues duo Jake and Elwood Blues, with his \u201cbrother,\u201d Dan Aykroyd, and recorded with the pair and made a suggestion that was golden. \u201cWhat they wanted to do probably would have made it anyway, I don\u2019t know, was basically all slow, kind of medium-tempo blues songs. Nothing wrong with blues songs, but there was nothing in there commercial to dance to,\u201d Cropper recalled in an interview for the Musicians Hall of Fame & Museum<\/a> in 2019.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSo, at the end of the rehearsal one day I said, \u2018John, why don\u2019t you do something you can dance to?\u2019 He said, \u2018Like what?\u2019 I said, \u2018Like Sam & Dave,\u2019\u201d he continued. I looked at [keyboardist] Paul Shaffer and said, \u2018Remember \u201cSoul Man\u201d?\u2019 and they started going crazy and dancing. So, when they get through with it\u2026 John turns around to me and says \u2018Steve, I love that song, but it\u2019s too high for me,\u2019 and I just dropped it down.\u201d The remake reached No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100<\/a> in 1979 and introduced the classic to a new generation.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cEvery note he played, every song he wrote, and every artist he inspired ensures that his spirit and artistry will continue to move people for generations to come. and countless musicians and fans whose lives he transformed through his extraordinary gift,\u201d his family said in their statement.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSteve Cropper\u2019s offerings to American music are significant but his contribution to soul and R&B music are immeasurable,\u201d Pat Mitchell Worley CEO, Soulsville Foundation \u2014 which includes the Stax Museum, Stax Music Academy, and Stax Charter School \u2014 said in a statement. \u201cAs a founding member of Booker T. & the M.G.\u2019s and a cornerstone of the Stax Records sound, his songwriting and guitar work shaped the very language of soul music. A gifted songwriter, producer, and musician, Cropper helped create timeless hits that continue to influence artists and people worldwide. His signature style helped define an era and cemented his legacy as one of the most important guitarists in modern music history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSurvivors include wife Angel Cropper and children Andrea, Cameron, Stephen and Ashley.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, who played on seminal recordings by such artists as Otis Redding, Booker T & the M.G.\u2019s, Wilson Pickett and many more, died Wednesday (Dec. 3) in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[275,96,94,392,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genre-rock","category-music","category-music-news","category-obituary","category-rock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7134\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}