Steve Cropper, guitarist and member of Stax Records’ Booker T and the M.G.’s, has died at age 84

By ADRIAN SAINZ Associated Press MEMPHIS Tenn AP Steve Cropper the lean soulful guitarist and songwriter who helped anchor the celebrated Memphis backing band Booker T and the M G s at Stax Records and co-wrote the classics Green Onions Sittin on the Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour has died He was Pat Mitchell Worley president and CEO of the Soulsville Foundation announced Cropper s family advised her that Cropper died on Wednesday in Nashville The foundation operates the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis located at the site of the former Stax Records where Cropper worked for years Related Articles Wisconsin Supreme Court to decide whether local jails can hold immigrants for ICE Republican states will help Homeland Protection obtain driver s license records Autism vaccines at center of latest battle between Healey and Trump administrations Kids and teens go full throttle for E-bikes as federal oversight stalls Payrolls at US companies fall by majority since ADP says The guitarist songwriter and record producer was not known for flashy playing but his spare catchy licks and solid rhythm chops helped define Memphis soul music His very name was immortalized in the smash Soul Man recorded by Sam Dave Midway singer Sam Moore calls out Play it Steve as Cropper pulls off a characteristically tight ringing riff a slide sound that Cropper used a Zippo lighter to create The exchange was reenacted in the late s when Cropper joined the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd act The Blues Brothers and played on their hit cover of Soul Man Cropper was born near Dora Missouri but moved with his family to Memphis when he was and got his first mail-order guitar at age according to his website playitsteve com Chuck Berry Jimmy Reed and Chet Atkins were among his early influences Cropper was a Stax artist before the label was even called Stax which Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton had founded as Satellite Records in In the early s Satellite signed up Cropper and his instrumental band the Royals Spades The band soon changed its name to the Mar-Keys and had a hit with the funky Last Night Satellite soon was renamed Stax a California label with the same name had threatened legal action At Stax certain of the Mar-Keys became the label s horn section while Cropper and other Mar-Keys eventually formed Booker T and the MG s Featuring Cropper keyboard player Booker T Jones bassist Donald Duck Dunn and drummer Al Jackson Booker T and the M G s were known for their hit instrumentals Green Onions Hang Em High and Time Is Tight and backed Otis Redding Sam Dave and other artists The racially integrated band a rarity in its day was so admired that even non-Stax artists recorded with them notably Wilson Pickett In the mid- s Atlantic Records executive Jerry Wexler brought Pickett to Memphis to work with the Stax musicians During a gathering with the National Music Publishers Association Cropper acknowledged he had never heard of Pickett before working with him He ascertained certain gospel recordings by Pickett was taken by the line I ll see my Jesus in the midnight hour and with a slight change helped write a secular standard The man up there has been forgiving me for this ever since he noted Cropper was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in as a member of Booker T and the M G s The same year Cropper Dunn and Jones were part of the house band for an all-star tribute at Madison Square Garden to Bob Dylan with other performers including Neil Young George Harrison and Stevie Wonder Al Jackson died in Dunn in Rolling Stone magazine ranked Cropper th on its Greatest Guitarists list calling him the secret ingredient in chosen of the greatest rock and soul songs He played guitar on hits by Eddie Floyd Wilson Pickett and plenty of others but was especially close to Redding In an interview on his website Cropper recalled collaborating on Sittin on the Dock of the Bay completed shortly before Redding s death in a December plane crash and a No hit in The brooding folkish ballad was a departure from Redding s signature soul sound and a bittersweet reflection on his triumphant appearance a scarce months earlier at the Monterey Pop Festival Cropper would remember adding the final touches on the recording while still grieving for Redding We had been looking for the crossover song he noted This song we knew we had it Cropper was in the movie The Blues Brothers and its follow-up Blues Brothers portraying The Colonel in the Blues Brothers band In real life he toured with them He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in in New York City and two years later received a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement