Steve Cropper
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Steve Cropper | |
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| Born | October 21, 1941 in Dora, Missouri |
| Alias(es) | The Colonel |
| Genre(s) | R&B Funk Electric blues |
| Affiliation(s) | Booker T. & the MG's The Mar-Keys The Blues Brothers |
| Notable guitars | Peavey Steve Cropper Classic |
| Years active | |
| Official site | Official website |
Steve "The Colonel" Cropper (born Stephen Lee Cropper, on October 21, 1941) is an American guitarist, songwriter, producer, and soul musician. On June 9, 2005, Cropper was inducted into the Songwriters' Hall of Fame alongside Bill Withers, Robert B. Sherman, Richard M. Sherman, John Fogerty, David Porter and Isaac Hayes.
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[edit] Early life
Cropper was born on a farm outside Dora, Missouri. In 1950, his family moved to Memphis, Tennessee. At age 10 he strummed a guitar for the first time, his brother-in-law's Gibson. Cropper received his first guitar at age 14, and started playing with local musicians. His hero at the time was Lowman Pauling of Memphis's The Five Royales.
[edit] The Stax years (1961-1970)
Cropper and guitarist Charlie Freeman formed (as a tip of the hat to Pauling's band) The Royal Spades, who eventually became The Mar-Keys. The Mar-Keys was a play on the marquee outside of Stax (at the time, called Satellite Records) [1]. The band's inexperienced sax player Charles "Packy" Axton's mother Estelle and uncle Jim Stewart owned Satellite, and eventually The Mar-Keys began playing on sessions and had a hit single of their own with 1961's "Last Night". Also in the band were producer/songwriter Don Nix and future legends, bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn and trumpeter Wayne Jackson.
Besides being impressed with the young guitarist's playing, the then Stax Records president Jim Stewart saw a business sense, professionalism, and maturity in Cropper beyond his years. When American Records founder Chips Moman left Stax, the young Cropper was given the keys to the studio, which he opened every day; he became the company's A & R man, and shared engineering duties with Stewart. A founding member of Booker T. & the MGs, Stax's house band, Cropper, along with Booker T. Jones on organ and piano, bassist Dunn, and drummer Al Jackson, Jr., went on to record several hits. His fiery leads and tight rhythm work with the MGs, and his tasteful work on hundreds of records, most notably his work with Otis Redding, were unmistakable and would make him a legend.
Cropper's legend was not limited to the United States. The Beatles, who were in awe of Cropper's ability, had hoped to record Revolver in Memphis at Ardent Studios, incorporating Cropper's guitar work into the finished product [2]. However, due to scheduling conflicts, The Beatles recorded Revolver in London at Abbey Road Studios.
The MGs, as instrumental artists, worked because they "wrote sounds". Music professor and author of the book Soulsville U.S.A.: The Story Of Stax Records, Rob Bowman, quotes Booker T. Jones as saying, "We were writing sounds too, especially Steve. He's very sound-conscious, and he gets a lot of sounds out of a Telecaster without changing any settings — just by using his fingers, his picks, and his amps". Together, with Jones on a B-3 organ, they could get so many sounds going that they sounded like a much larger group.
Besides his influential work with the MGs, 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. His partnership with Redding was particularly fruitful. "(Sittin' On) The Dock Of the Bay", alone, has been played over six million times, making it the sixth most played song of all time (and the ASCAP catalog's second most).
In 1969, Cropper released his first solo album, With a Little Help From My Friends.
[edit] After Stax (1970-present)
Cropper left Stax in the fall of 1970 [3]. The company had already lost Otis Redding in a plane crash, stars Sam & Dave (through Stax's distribution deal breakup with Atlantic), and an also disgruntled Booker T. Jones. When Cropper left, Stax lost their most successful producer, along with his partners David Porter and Isaac Hayes.
He formed TMI (Trans-Maximus) with Jerry Williams and former Mar-Key Ronnie Stoots. There he lent his guitar and producing skills to Jeff Beck, Tower Of Power, John Prine, and Jose Feliciano (in his 3 great RCA albums 1972 "Memphis Menu", 1973 "Compartments", 1974 "For My Love") . Also during this time, he played on Ringo Starr's 1973 album Ringo and the following year's Goodnight Vienna, and John Lennon asked him to play on his Rock 'n' Roll album. By 1975, Cropper had closed shop and moved to Los Angeles, where Booker T. Jones was also living. They called up Al Jackson and Duck Dunn, still at Stax, and decided to reform the MGs. But Jackson, who Cropper called "the greatest drummer to ever walk the earth", was murdered in his Memphis home.
In the late seventies, Cropper and Dunn became members of (The Band's drummer) Levon Helm's RCO All Stars, and then they went on to lead The Blues Brothers Band with drummer and Stax alumnus Willie Hall. Cropper lived in L.A. for the next thirteen years before moving to Nashville.
In 1996, he was named the second greatest guitar player of all time, behind Jimi Hendrix, by Britain's Mojo magazine. When asked what he thought of Cropper, the guitarist at number four, The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards, said "Perfect, man".
In February 1998, he released Play It, Steve! on his own label of the same name - the phrase is exclaimed during Sam & Dave's - Soul Man, and also by 'Joliet' Jake Blues in the Blues Brothers' interpretation of the song on their album 'Briefcase Full Of Blues'.
