FiscalFusion

Steve Cropper, the soulful guitarist and songwriter who anchored Booker T. and the M.G.’s at Stax Records and co-wrote classics like “Green Onions,” “(Sittin’ on) the Dock of the Bay,” and “In the Midnight Hour,” has died at 84; Pat Mitchell Worley of the Soulsville Foundation said his family confirmed Cropper died Wednesday in Nashville, with no immediate cause of death, though longtime associate Eddie Gore said he had recently visited Cropper at a rehabilitation facility after a fall and noted he had still been working on new music, calling him “such a good human”; Cropper’s understated but unforgettable guitar licks helped define Memphis soul, and at a time when white artists often profited from Black musicians’ work, he was known for collaborating and keeping a low profile, immortalized in Sam & Dave’s “Soul Man” when Sam Moore shouted “Play it, Steve!” as he played a Zippo slider riff, a moment later recreated when he joined the Blues Brothers; in a 2020 AP interview, Cropper explained his style as listening closely to singers and other musicians, adding only what the song needed, prompting Keith Richards to call him “Perfect, man,” and Joe Bonamassa to say his moves are widely copied; born in Missouri and raised in Memphis from age 9, Cropper got his first guitar at 14 and was influenced by Chuck Berry, Jimmy Reed and Chet Atkins, joining Satellite Records (later renamed Stax) in its earliest days with his band the Royal Spades, later the Mar-Keys, who had a hit with “Last Night”; at Stax, Cropper formed Booker T.

and the M.G.’s with Booker T. Jones, Donald “Duck” Dunn and Al Jackson, creating hits like “Green Onions,” “Hang ’Em High” and “Time Is Tight,” backing Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Wilson Pickett and others, and standing out as a racially integrated band in the 1960s, with Cropper recalling that “there was absolutely no color” inside Stax; inspired by a Pickett gospel lyric, he helped write “In the Midnight Hour,” joking later that he’d been seeking forgiveness ever since; inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 with the M.G.’s, Cropper also played in the all-star Bob Dylan tribute that year, was ranked No.

39 on Rolling Stone’s list of greatest guitarists, and cherished his collaboration with Otis Redding, especially finishing “Dock of the Bay” shortly after Redding’s fatal 1967 plane crash; Cropper appeared as “The Colonel” in *The Blues Brothers* films and toured with the band, received the Songwriters Hall of Fame induction in 2005, a Grammy lifetime achievement award in 2007, continued recording into his later years including 2024’s Grammy-nominated *Friendlytown*, and earlier this year received the Tennessee Governor’s Arts Award, the state’s highest arts honor..