 |
| Steve Cropper |
Cropper grew up in Memphis Tennessee and as a child his parents took him to the Black churches they attended. This had quite a musical impact on him. Cropper began playing guitar at age 14 when he received a mail order guitar from the Sear Roebuck Company. He listed Jimmy Reed, Chuck Berry, Chet Atkins, Tal Farlow, and Lowman Pauling as his influences.
Cropper was a Stax artist before the label was even called Stax. Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton (Hoyt’s mother) founded as Satellite Records in 1957.
In the early 1960s, Satellite signed up a band called the Royals Spades. Steve Cropper was the guitarist in this band.
The band soon changed its name to the Mar-Keys. The building had a marquee outside, as it had once housed a theater. So this horn based band chose that name.
The band recorded some songs and had a huge hit with "Last Night."
Cropper and other Mar-Keys members formed Booker T. and the M.G.'s. Featuring guitarist Cropper, Hammond organist Booker T. Jones, bass player Donald "Duck" Dunn and drummer Al Jackson. The group was known for their hit instrumentals "Green Onions," "Hang 'Em High" and "Time Is Tight,”
 |
| Green Onions |
 |
| Stax House Band |
Jones, and Jackson were Black. Dunn, and Cropper were white. There was no color line at Stax.
They were there to make hit records, and they did.
The members of the Mar-Keys became the Stax house band, backing up the numerous artists that recorded there.
 |
| Soul Man |
Cropper co-wrote "Knock on Wood" with Eddie Floyd, "In the Midnight Hour" with Wilson Pickett and "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" with Otis Redding.
Cropper said in an interview that he was especially close to Otis Redding. Cropper recalled collaborating on "(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay,"
This song and recording was completed shortly before Redding's death in a December 1967 plane crash and became a No. 1 hit in 1968.
Cropper would remember adding the final touches on the recording while still grieving for Redding. "We had been looking for the crossover song," he said. "This song, we knew we had it."
In the mid-1960s, Atlantic Records executive Jerry Wexler brought Pickett to work with the Stax musicians. Wexler was a northern record executive, but at the Rolling Stone’s insistence had gone to the Memphis based Stax studios to record the band.
During those days Cropper acknowledged he had never heard of Pickett before working with him. Picket was a Gospel singer. Steve found some gospel recordings by Pickett, was taken by the line "I'll see my Jesus in the midnight hour".
Cropper made some slight changes to the lyrics and helped turn it into a secular standard “In the Midnight Hour.”.
 |
| TMI Studio |
By 1975, Cropper had moved to Los Angeles and along with Jones, Jackson and Dunn, reformed Booker T. & the M.G.'s. Three years later Cropper and Dunn became members of Levon Helm's RCO All-Stars and then went on to figure prominently in the Blues Brothers Band.
This led to two albums, appearances in the movies The Blues Brothers and Blues Brothers 2000, and the movies' soundtracks. Cropper also re-recorded "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" in 1979) for Sammy Hagar.
Cropper lived in Los Angeles for the next thirteen years before moving to Nashville. He reunited with the Blues Brothers Band in 1988.
Though the Blues Brothers was a comedy movie, it did manage
to bring about a whole new interest in a genre of music, and it's performers
that had been forgotten by the mainstream. Steve Cropper paid a large role in
this effort. He was indeed, A Soul Man.
UniqueGuitar Publications (text only) 2025
Click on the links under the pictures for sources.
Please click on the ads to support this page. Thank you!
