Steve Cropper, guitarist of the famed band Booker T & the MGs, dies aged 84

The legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, the renowned guitarist with the seminal soul group Booker T & the MGs, has left us at the age of 84.

The guitar virtuoso, who contributed to and co-wrote Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, succumbed on Wednesday in Nashville.

Widely regarded among the best supporting groups in the history of soul music, the quartet Booker T & the MGs was the house band of the influential Memphis label Stax/Volt and is primarily known for their 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper went on to join the John Belushi-Dan Aykroyd act The Blues Brothers in the late 1970s and featured on their popular rendition of Soul Man.

"Steve was a deeply admired artist, writer, and producer whose immense talent touched countless people around the world," his family expressed in a statement.

"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a husband, father, and friend, we find comfort knowing that Steve will live forever through his music," they noted.

A specific cause was not immediately known.

A friend, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper on Tuesday in Nashville, where the guitarist had been working on new music.

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

An Illustrious Journey

Ranked the runner-up for guitarist of all time by a UK publication in 1996, Cropper first found employment at Stax in 1961 at the age of 20.

A year later, the MGs were formed, comprising organist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was succeeded by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964.

The band was honored by inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

"I've always considered myself to be a rhythm player," Cropper remarked in a past interview. "I take pride in the fact that I can play something repeatedly, while other guitar players don't want to even know about that. They refuse to play the same phrase twice."

As well as a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and in addition to Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he co-wrote Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.

According to available information, he was "a part of the majority of record issued by Stax from late 1961 through year end 1970".

"We would literally spend long days in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had nearly 20 artists signed to the label, so we had a pretty busy schedule."