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Esteemed musician Steve Cropper, the celebrated guitarist with the seminal soul group Booker T & the MGs, has died at the age of 84.

The artist, who played on and helped pen the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, died this past Wednesday in the city of Nashville.

Considered among the greatest studio bands in soul and R&B, the group Booker T & the MGs was the house band of the historic Memphis label Stax/Volt and is best remembered for their 1962 instrumental track Green Onions.

Cropper also joined the blues revival band The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and featured on their successful version of Soul Man.

"Steve was a beloved guitarist, composer, and producer whose profound talent impacted generations around the world," his family said in a release.

"While we grieve the loss of a loved one and companion, we find comfort knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they noted.

A cause of death was not released at this time.

An associate, Eddie Gore, mentioned he was with Cropper on Tuesday in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating new music.

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

A Prolific Career

Named the runner-up for guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper started his career at Stax in 1961 at the age of 20.

A year later, the MGs were formed, comprising 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 seen myself as a player who focuses on rhythm," Cropper explained in a past interview. "I get off on the fact that I can play something repeatedly, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They are reluctant to repeat the same lick twice."

Not only was he a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and in addition to Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he collaborated on Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.

According to available information, he was "involved in the majority of record issued by Stax from late 1961 through 1970".

"We would often spend long days in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had nearly 20 artists on the roster, so we had a extremely demanding schedule."