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Guitarist Steve Cropper dies

FILE - Guitarist, songwriter and record producer Steve Cropper poses Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2020, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey,File)

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- Steve Cropper, the lean, soulful guitarist and songwriter who helped anchor the celebrated Memphis backing band Booker T. and the M.G.'s at Stax Records and co-wrote the classics "Green Onions," "(Sittin' on) the Dock of the Bay" and "In the Midnight Hour," has died. He was 84.

Pat Mitchell Worley, president and CEO of the Soulsville Foundation, said Cropper's family told her that Cropper died on Wednesday in Nashville. The foundation operates the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis, located at the site of the former Stax Records, where Cropper worked for years.

A cause of death was not immediately known.

Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, asked once about Cropper, said simply, "Perfect, man." On a YouTube instructional video, guitar virtuoso Joe Bonamassa says Cropper's moves are often copied.

"If you haven't heard the name Steve Cropper, you've heard him in song," Bonamassa said.

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