Steve Cropper, guitarist of Booker T and the MGs, has passed away at the age of 84

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

The artist, who performed on and co-wrote the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, succumbed this past Wednesday in Music City, Nashville.

Widely regarded among the best backing bands in the history of soul music, the four-piece band Booker T & the MGs was the resident studio band of the historic Memphis label Stax and is best remembered for their classic 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper went on to join the comedy music group The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and featured on their hit cover of Soul Man.

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

"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a loved one and companion, we are consoled knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they continued.

A specific cause was not immediately known.

An associate, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper just the day before in Nashville, where the guitarist had been working on new songs.

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

A Storied Musical Path

Named the second-best guitarist of all time by a music periodical in 1996, Cropper first found employment at Stax in 1961 at the age of 20.

A year later, the MGs came together, featuring keyboardist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was succeeded by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964.

The band was inducted into 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 won't even play the same phrase twice."

Not only was he a guitarist, Cropper was a productive songwriter, and besides Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he helped write Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.

According to historical accounts, he was "involved in nearly all record issued by Stax from 1961 through 1970".

"We would often spend long days in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists we worked with, so we had a pretty busy schedule."