The legendary guitar player Steve Cropper has died aged 84.
As the guitarist in Booker T. & the M.G.’s, the house band for Stax Records, Cropper was a key figure in shaping the sound of soul music in the ’60s, backing legendary singers including Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett.
Born in Dora, Missouri on October 21, 1941, Cropper co-wrote the classic songs Green Onions for Booker T. & the M.G.’s and (Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay with Otis Redding, and also recorded with rock icons John Lennon and Rod Stewart.
![[Sittin' On] the Dock of the Bay - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/7C-VscEQugk/maxresdefault.jpg)
Cropper's 2024 solo album Friendlytown – the last of his distinguished career – featured guest spots from friends Billy Gibbons and Brian May.
It was while promoting Friendlytown that he gave a interview to Total Guitar in which he discussed his life in music.
“My first guitar is under glass now at the Memphis Music Hall of Fame,” he said. “It’s only got three strings. I used to play it like a rubber band when I was eight years old.
“I bought it from the Sears Roebuck catalogue. It was a Country Western, a big round-hole, flat top guitar. I’d sit on the porch waiting for that guitar to be delivered every weekend, waiting for the truck to turn the corner. And then it finally arrived.
“The strings were loose and the bridge needed fixing, and they wanted a 25 cent delivery fee – 25 cents! My mom said, ‘I’ll lend you that quarter if you become a guitar player.’ She’s not around to defend herself anymore, but I think I did!”
He talked about his development as a player.
“In the early days when I was playing guitar, I knew the world didn't need another B.B. King, Chet Atkins or Les Paul,” he said. “So, what are you gonna do now? I thought, ‘Just be yourself and do your thing. Don't go changing.’”
He fondly recalled the moment when he felt he had arrived as a guitarist.
“It was doing Green Onions with Booker T. and the M.G.’s,” he said. “Booker actually started writing that and then we worked on it together. A singer was meant to come into the studio but they never showed up – he’d been singing all night and he couldn’t even say his name in the morning so he never came in.
“So we were just jamming around waiting. A few weeks passed and we were working on the song Behave Yourself and the label said, ‘Do you have anything for the B-side?’ I said to Booker, ‘What were those riffs you had you thought would be good for a vocal song?’ We played it to them and they said ‘That’s pretty good’. And that was it. That was the record.”
![Booker T & the MG's - Green Onions [Colourised] 1967 - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/qTpLK4Zwiw4/maxresdefault.jpg)
Cropper’s approach to playing guitar was something he summed up in one word.
“Groove,” he said. “If someone’s got groove, he’s gonna last a lot longer than the guy doesn’t, whatever groove means to you. To me it means soul.
“And play in the box, not outside it. That's what people like. If you play too far outside the box people aren't gonna like it.
He added with extraordinary humility: “My playing has always sucked, but it sells, because I keep it simple, I guess.
“I'm not a guitar player. I never took the time. I use it as a tool. I couldn’t afford to hire another guitarist on a lot of Stax records, so I learned to play rhythm and lead at the same time so when I was soloing the rhythm wouldn't drop out.
“Randy Bachman from The Guess Who taught me a lick, and it was more of a country lick where you could bend two strings at the same time, but he did it with two fingers. I figured out how to do it with one finger.
“I'll never use a capo, either. God gave you a capo right here [holding up his first finger] so I learnt how to play a lot of chords with three fingers instead of four. That was important.”
He said of his guitar collection: “The last guitar I bought was probably a Telecaster but I’ve never been much of a collector, and I don't play Teles anymore. I play Telecaster copies made by Peavey and I ran over the one I've got now.
“I ran over all the electrics; the tone and volume and the pickup switch. I hammered everything back into place and it all works fine. I plugged it in, looked and my engineer and said, ‘It still sounds good to me’, so it's got something in it.
“I play it all the time. The problem with running it over is the pickup switch would keep rattling. I'd tighten it up and it would start rattling and changing position again. The bridge pickup is too damn bright for me. I’ve always preferred the middle position, so I took a bit of cardboard and stuffed in right in there so the switch can't move!”
Cropper played with so many musicians over the years. As he told Total Guitar, one of his most memorable experiences was in 1972 when he produced The Jeff Beck Group’s self-titled album.
He recalled: “Whatever Jeff's mind thought, his hands would go there. You couldn't say ‘You can't get that’ to Jeff. He’d just reach for things and grab it. He did things that no one else thought was possible and he’d make it sound right. Working on The Jeff Beck Group album is one of my proudest moments.”
He was less impressed by a guitar player he didn’t care to name.
He laughed: “There was a guy who came into Stax one time that put a handkerchief over the strings so that no one could see what he was doing and copy him. I didn't care about any of that. I'm sure he was a great guitar player, but he didn't impress me with it.”
His favourite musician to play with was drummer Al Jackson of Booker T. & the M.G.’s.
“A magazine once called me up and said, ‘I believe Stax Records is the first label to use an automatic drum?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, his name is Al Jackson!’ With Al on drums, you could edit the intro of take one with the intro of take ten and no one would know – he was that good of a timekeeper. He was great to play with.”
Cropper had this advice for young guitarists: “Do not get into this business for money. If you do, you're gonna fail. Do it for the fun, and if you're good at what you do, somewhere along the way someone will pay you. “
His interview with Total Guitar ended on a philosophical note.
“I don't ever remember having a bad show,” he said. “So I don't know if I've failed or not.
“Some people do. I’ve had records that went out to market and didn't sell, I've had a few of them, so I guess I failed there. But the records themselves have been pretty clean and spot on to me. I don't release junk, not with my name on it. It has to be quality stuff.
“It might not sell, but I'm happy with it,” he smiled. “I don’t have any regrets.”
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.