Steve Cropper, a storied guitarist, songwriter and producer who was central to the gritty Southern soul sound crafted at Memphis’ Stax Records and who anchored the label’s house band Booker T. & the M.G.’s, has died at the age of 84 in Nashville, Tennessee, his death confirmed by those close to his family.
Cropper’s lean, incisive guitar work and studio instincts helped power landmark soul recordings of the 1960s for artists including Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave and many others signed to Stax. As a member of Booker T. & the M.G.’s, he played on and helped shape hits such as “Green Onions,” often serving as the musical backbone for sessions that defined the “Memphis soul” sound heard around the world.
Beyond his role as a session player, Cropper co‑wrote classics including “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,” “In the Midnight Hour” and “Soul Man,” songs that became cornerstones of the soul canon and showcased his knack for memorable riffs and tightly constructed arrangements. He also took on production and artists-and-repertoire duties at Stax, with his own website and label colleagues noting that he was involved in a vast share of the records the company issued during its most fertile years in the 1960s.
Born in Missouri and raised in Tennessee, Cropper emerged from early Memphis groups like the Mar-Keys before helping form Booker T. & the M.G.’s, the integrated house band whose presence in the studio was critical to Stax’s artistic and commercial success. His understated but authoritative playing earned him honors including induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and he appeared in and toured with the Blues Brothers project in the late 1970s and beyond, introducing his work to new generations of listeners.
In later years, Cropper continued recording, touring and mentoring, remaining an active presence in music up until shortly before his death, even while recovering from a recent fall in a Nashville rehabilitation facility. Tributes from collaborators, historians and fans have hailed him as a quiet architect of modern soul, a musician whose economical chords and grooves left a lasting imprint on popular music far beyond Memphis.
