“Play It, Steve!”

The body of work Steve Cropper left behind acts as a foundation of everything that followed.

Steve Cropper was a part of my family since before I was born. As long as I can remember, the records that featured his guitar and/or co-writing credit occupied my parents’ turntable. When I was still in single digits, it was the Stax sound that attracted me to the world of music more than any other style; more than rock, more than country. It moved and soared like the gospel my grandma loved, but it was also my gateway to the blues. Most of that greasy soul sound came from the fingers and minds of Booker T. and the MGs.

The first time I heard “Green Onions,” it was the funkiest thing I’d experienced up to that point. That organ riff by Booker T. Jones was the nastiest, deepest sound on Earth. After Jones sets up the groove for a few bars and solos for another turn, the whole piece is elevated by Cropper’s Esquire. Nothing fancy, nothing flashy. But it sounded like he was strangling every ounce of soul out of that thing. As in all of Stax’s best moments in its heyday, the space left open between the instruments was an instrument and a groove all its own.

Of course, if Cropper had just been the guitarist for Booker T. and the MGs, his legacy would be secure, but he also co-wrote some of the most enduring soul songs in the genre’s history.

Fun fact: The Colonel came up with the intro to “Knock On Wood” by playing the opening he created for “In the Midnight Hour” backwards.

In addition to co-writing with both Wilson Pickett and Eddie Floyd, Cropper teamed up with Floyd again in 1966 and wrote 634-5789, the greatest song with a telephone number ever written (sorry, Jenny). It soon became another Pickett hit.

Here’s the version featured in the unfairly maligned Blues Brothers 2000 that includes both Pickett and Floyd, as well as the hotshot guitarist of the moment, Jonny Lang…

Speaking of the Blues Brothers, it was a blast watching MGs Cropper and Donald “Duck” Dunn as part of the Blues Brothers Band in the original 1980 movie, especially the famous scene at Bob’s Country Bunker…

The Blues Brothers first performed on Saturday Night Live by trotting out a Sam and Dave chestnut from 1967, featuring The Colonel’s legendary intro (which he created by sliding a Zippo up the fretboard), and Sam Moore calling out halfway through, “Play it, Steve!”

Of course, Cropper helped flesh out Otis Redding’s idea that became Redding’s only number one hit…sadly, after Otis passed.

Cropper also laid down one of the great rhythm parts of all time, in addition to one bad-ass solo, for this 1968 Johnnie Taylor classic.

…and while The Colonel’s understated genius is on display in many examples over the decades, as Garth Cartwright reminded me in the comment section, it was actually Booker T. that provided the sympathetic backing to William Bell’s soul-soaked, aching apology on “I Forgot to Be Your Lover,” a song Jones co-wrote with Bell. (We’ll keep it here anyway, because it’s just too good not to spin…)

And finally, co-written with the rest of the MGs along with Junior Wells, everyone from Free to Led Zeppelin has put their own spin on Albert King’s “The Hunter” over the years. In this version, Cropper’s steady rhythm stabs leave plenty of space for King to do his thing…

Cropper didn’t live in the past, however. He kept making music up to the very end, as his latest recordings were just recently completed and will hopefully be available soon. He collaborated over the ensuing decades with everyone from Etta James and Big Star to Rod Stewart to Neil Young. It’s his time at Stax, though, that will most likely outlast us all. Now, the MGs are all together again, most likely laying down a funky groove for Otis while they await their organ-wielding boss. I hope they’re waiting a long time.

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