MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Guitarist, songwriter and producer Steve Cropper has died. The musician helped to define what became known as the Memphis Sound as a member of Booker T. & the M.G.'s, the house band at Stax Record label. He also wrote and produced some of American pop music's most foundational songs. Cropper died in Nashville yesterday. He was 84. NPR's Chloe Veltman has this remembrance.
CHLOE VELTMAN, BYLINE: Some of the world's best-known songs have Steve Cropper's stamp on them. He cowrote this 1967 hit with Otis Redding...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "(SITTIN' ON) THE DOCK OF THE BAY")
OTIS REDDING: (Singing) I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay, watching the tide roll away.
VELTMAN: ...And in 1962, created this groovy instrumental track with Booker T. & the M.G.'s. Here Cropper is playing the guitar solo on "Green Onions."
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JIM STEWART: I think Steve and Booker had been working on a little riff for a while. It went something like dum, dum, da-dum, dum (ph).
(SOUNDBITE OF BOOKER T. & THE M.G.'S' "GREEN ONIONS")
VELTMAN: Stax Records cofounder Jim Stewart spoke at Booker T. & the M.G.'s' Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in 1992 about the Sunday 30 years previously, when Cropper and the rest of the band took that riff and ran with it.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
STEWART: We almost wore the tape out that night, listening to it. The next day, we had a demo on the air, and we were getting calls on the record immediately.
VELTMAN: Steve Cropper's guitar style was clean and concise. He even gets a shoutout for his work on Sam & Dave's 1966 single, "Soul Man."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SOUL MAN")
SAM AND DAVE: Play it, Steve. (Singing) I'm a soul man.
VELTMAN: In 1996, the U.K.'s MOJO magazine placed Cropper second on its list of the world's hundred greatest guitarists of all time, right behind Jimi Hendrix. According to the Memphis Music Hall of Fame, Hendrix counted Cropper as an influence. But as Cropper told Terry Gross in a 1990 interview on WHYY's Fresh Air, he did not see himself as a lead guitarist.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
STEVE CROPPER: I've been lucky enough to have played a few solos on some great artists' records. But really, I'm a rhythm man.
VELTMAN: Steven Lee Cropper was born in 1941 in rural Missouri. His family moved to Memphis when he was 9, where he learned to play guitar and immersed himself in the burgeoning soul and R&B scenes. He formed his first band, the Royal Spades, with high school friends. They changed their name to The Mar-Keys in 1961. That year, they came out with the instrumental track, "Last Night." It was a smash hit.
(SOUNDBITE OF THE MAR-KEYS' "LAST NIGHT")
VELTMAN: By then, Cropper was already doing session work and soon found his way to Stax Records, which would become his musical home for nearly a decade. He went on to set up his own studio in 1970 and worked with many famous musicians, including Rod Stewart, John Prine, Ringo Starr and John Lennon. Starting in 1978, Cropper joined John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd's blues and soul revue act, The Blues Brothers. He even appeared in "The Blues Brothers" movies.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE BLUES BROTHERS")
DAN AYKROYD: (As Elwood) We're the good old Blues Brothers boys' band from Chicago.
VELTMAN: Cropper's collaboration with the comedians wasn't universally adored. Rock historian Ed Ward showed his disdain in an otherwise glowing tribute to the musician on Fresh Air in 1987.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
ED WARD: Unfortunately, his most visible moments recently were with Aykroyd and Belushi's minstrel show, "The Blues Brothers."
VELTMAN: For his part, Steve Cropper told NPR in 2011, he always got a kick out of hearing the music he worked on over the years while driving.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR CONTENT)
CROPPER: And I turned the radio on, and boom - there's either "Knock On Wood" or "Green Onions" or...
JOHN YDSTIE: Right.
CROPPER: ..."Dock Of The Bay" or "Midnight Hour."
VELTMAN: The musician said nothing beats that thrill, except perhaps being with his family. Chloe Veltman, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IN THE MIDNIGHT HOUR")
WILSON PICKETT: (Singing) ...When there's no one else around. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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