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

The musician, who played on and co-wrote Otis Redding's Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and the hit track In the Midnight Hour, succumbed on Wednesday in Music City, Nashville.

Considered among the finest studio bands in soul and R&B, the group the MGs was the core musical unit of the groundbreaking Memphis label Stax and is most famous for their 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper went on to join the comedy music group The Blues Brothers in the 1970s and performed on their hit cover of Soul Man.

"Steve was a cherished musician, songwriter, and producer whose immense talent touched millions of lives around the world," his family expressed in a statement.

"While we feel sorrow for the loss of a loved one and companion, we are consoled knowing that Steve will live forever through his music," they added.

A reason for his passing was not released at this time.

An associate, Eddie Gore, recalled he was with Cropper on Tuesday in Nashville, where the guitarist had been working on fresh material.

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

A Storied Musical Path

Voted the runner-up for guitarist of all time by a UK publication in 1996, Cropper first found employment at Stax in 1961 at the age of 20.

A year later, the MGs were formed, comprising organist Booker T Jones, drummer Al Jackson and bassist Lewie Steinberg - who was replaced by Donald "Duck" Dunn in 1964.

The band was honored by inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

"I've always considered myself to be a rhythm player," Cropper said in a previous conversation. "I get off on the fact that I can play something over and over, 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 besides Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he helped write Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.

According to available information, he was "integral to the majority of record put out by Stax from 1961 through the end of 1970".

"We would often spend long days in the studio," Cropper said. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists signed to the label, so we had a pretty busy schedule."