Steve Cropper, a founding member of Booker T. & the M.G.’s whose distinctive funky guitar licks graced R&B and soul hits from the enduring Stax Information label and on tracks carried out by The Blues Brothers, has died. He was 84.
The Related Press reported that Cooper died on Wednesday in Nashville. Pat Mitchell Worley, president and CEO of the Soulsville Basis, mentioned Cropper’s household informed her about his time of loss of life. In accordance with AP, a reason for loss of life was not instantly recognized.
Eddie Gore, a longtime affiliate, reportedly mentioned he was with Cropper on Tuesday in Nashville at a rehabilitation facility, after a current fall, in line with AP. Gore additionally alleges that Cooper had been engaged on new music when he visited him on the facility.
The Soulsville Basis operates the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis. It’s situated on the former Stax Information, Cropper’s outdated office.
Cropper, who backed such artists as Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas & Rufus Thomas and Johnnie Taylor and produced a lot of their information, was ranked No. 45 on Rolling Stone’s checklist of “The 250 Best Guitarists of All Time” in 2023.
“Consider the introduction to Sam & Dave’s ‘Soul Man,’ the explosive bent notes in Booker T.’s ‘Inexperienced Onions’ or the filigreed guitar fills in Redding’s ‘(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay’ — all of them bear Cropper’s signature sound, the quintessence of soul guitar,” Douglas Wolk wrote.
In 1996, Britain’s Mojo journal known as him the “the best residing guitar participant.”
Cropper, who used a 1956 Fender Esquire and later a blonde Fender Telecaster on lots of the early Stax recordings, in 1969 earned the primary of his two profession Grammys for “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay, which he co-wrote with Redding. He was mixing the tune inside days of the funeral for the singer, who died in a aircraft crash in Wisconsin in December 1967.
Cropper additionally teamed with performers Wilson Pickett and Eddie Floyd to co-write their hits “Within the Midnight Hour” and “Knock on Wooden,” respectively.
When John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd fashioned The Blues Brothers in 1978, they got here searching for Cropper, and “The Colonel” led their backing band on excursions, albums and within the 1980 movie directed by John Landis.
Alongside the best way, Cropper additionally performed on albums from Paul Simon, Ringo Starr, Buddy Man, Jonny Lang, Elton John, Steppenwolf, John Louis Walker and plenty of others.
A member of the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame and Songwriters Corridor of Fame, Cropper shunned the highlight and didn’t favor prolonged guitar solos. “I don’t care about being middle stage,” he mentioned. “I’m a band member, at all times been a band member.”
Born on Oct. 21, 1941, on a farm close to Dora, Missouri, Steven Lee Cropper moved together with his household to Memphis when he was 9, and earlier than lengthy, he was strumming his brother-in-law’s Gibson guitar. He acquired his personal guitar by mail order at 14, when he started taking part in with native musicians.
He mentioned his earliest influences had been The 5 Royales’ Lowman Pauling, Chet Atkins, Chuck Berry, Tal Farlow, Jimmy Reed and Billy Butler.
Whereas nonetheless in highschool, Cropper fashioned the Royal Spades with fellow guitarist Charlie Freeman, bassist Donald “Duck” Dunn and saxophone participant Packy Axton. They quickly modified their identify to The Mar-Keys, a reference to the marquee on the former Capitol movie show that will develop into Satellite tv for pc Information.
(Satellite tv for pc, which might morph into Stax, was a file retailer and recording studio owned by Axton’s mom, Estelle, and her brother, Jim Stewart. Cropper began working there as a file clerk.)
In 1961, The Mar-Keys reached No. 3 on the Billboard Scorching 100 with the organ- and sax-driven instrumental “Final Evening” on Satellite tv for pc. Cropper, who was attending Memphis State as a mechanical engineering scholar on the time, performed organ.
Quitting The Mar-Keys halfway by their debut tour, he was given the keys to the Stax studio and have become, together with Stewart, the label’s A&R man and engineer.
In 1962, he and keyboardist Booker T. Jones labored with drummer Al Jackson Jr. and bassist Lewie Steinberg at a recording session for Billy Lee Riley, and they might develop into Booker T. & the M.G.’s, the in-house band at Stax.
When a rockabilly singer they had been employed to accompany completed early one session, the quartet started to jam and had been surreptitiously recorded by Stewart in 1962. One of many songs to emerge from that was the B-side instrumental “Inexperienced Onions,” which reached No. 1 on the Billboard R&B chart and No. 3 on the Scorching 100.
Different hits adopted, together with “Mo’ Onions,” “Soul Dressing,” “Boot-Leg,” “My Candy Potato,” “Hip Hug-Her,” “Groovin’,” “Soul Limbo,” “Hold ’Em Excessive,” “Time Is Tight,” “Mrs. Robinson,” “One thing” and “Melting Pot.” (Dunn would substitute Steinberg within the band in 1963).
The M.G.’s primarily break up when Jones left Stax in 1968, adopted in 1970 by Cropper, who launched the Trans-Maximus (TMI) recording studio and file firm with Jerry Williams and Mar-Key bandmate Ronnie Stoots. He moved to California in 1974.
Cropper produced and performed on periods by Poco, Jeff Beck, José Feliciano, Yvonne Elliman, John Prine and Goals and on Tower of Energy’s 1978 album, We Got here to Play, and on John Cougar Mellencamp’s breakthrough LP, 1980’s Nothin’ Issues and What if It Did.
In 1977, with Stax alum Willie Corridor filling in for the late Jackson, the M.G.’s reunited to file Common Language. Shortly afterward, Cropper and Dunn joined Levon Helm’s RCO All-Stars earlier than receiving a name from huge followers Belushi and Aykroyd.
The unique incarnation of the tribute act recorded three albums, together with 1978’s chart-topping Briefcase Stuffed with Blues. (Cropper was name-checked by Sam & Dave and The Blues Brothers — “Play It, Steve!” — on each variations of “Soul Man.”)
When The Blues Brothers went on hiatus following the 1982 loss of life of Belushi, Cropper remained in demand as a producer and session guitarist. He additionally resumed his solo profession, recording two albums for MCA, 1980’s Playin’ My Thang and 1982’s Evening After Evening. (His first solo effort was With A Little Assist From My Pals, performed for Stax in 1969.)
In 1992, Booker T. & the M.G.’s had been inducted into the Rock and Roll Corridor of Fame, and three years later they gained a Grammy for “Cruisin’” in one of the best pop instrumental efficiency class. They had been additional celebrated in 1997 with the publication of Rob Bowman’s Soulsville U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Information.
In 1998, Cropper performed and appeared within the Blues Brothers 2000 sequel, with John Goodman changing Belushi, and labored on John Carpenter’s Vampires (1998). He additionally launched a solo album, Play It, Steve! on his label, Play It Steve! Information.
He entered the Songwriters Corridor of Fame in 2005.
Nudge It Up a Notch, that includes Cropper and The Rascals’ Felix Cavaliere, got here out in 2008 and marked a reunion with Stax. Two years later, they returned for the album Midnight Flyer, on Stax as effectively. In 2011, he performed on the Devoted: A Salute to The 5 Royales.
Extra not too long ago, Cropper acquired a Grammy nomination within the modern blues album class for 2021’s Hearth It Up, and Steve Cropper and the Midnight Hour recorded 2024’s Friendlytown, that includes Billy Gibbons and Brian Might.
Survivors embody his second spouse, Angel, and their kids, Andrea and Cameron.