Steve Cropper and the Memphis Sound

Duck Dunn, Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, Al Jackson, Jr.

I've never written about the soul music offshoot of R&B on these blogs, but the recent death of guitarist-songwriter-producer Steve Cropper is a good, if sad opportunity to do so.

Cropper was one of the leading lights of the "Memphis sound" - the recordings on the Stax and Volt label in the 1960s that defined the soulful, groove-oriented music that generated a great number of hits.

I'm far from an expert on the music, but I am a fan, so from my collection I can provide a short playlist of hits featuring Cropper that span 1961-68.

A later French picture sleeve - Cropper is in the shadows at right

The first success was by the Mar-Keys with "Last Night," which originally came out on the Satellite label. With its blasting horn motto and simple structure, it provided fodder for a whole generation of garage bands. It's been said that Cropper doesn't play on the tune - there is no guitar part - but he insists he was there: "Jerry Lee 'Smoochy' Smith came up with the piano riff that was played on organ. Since [producer Chips] Moman didn't want a guitar on it for whatever reason, I wound up playing the hold-down on the organ on the root note." The only solo on the record is by a tenor saxophonist. I think it is Packy Axton doing his best Boots Randolph imitation.

Cropper soon got together with three other musicians to form Booker T. and the MGs - Booker T. Jones on keyboards, Lewie Steinberg and later Duck Dunn on bass, Cropper on guitar and the minimalist and rock-steady drummer Al Jackson, Jr.

This formidable quartet almost immediately had a giant R&B and pop hit with 1962's "Green Onions," which set a pattern - extraordinarily catchy music that was seemingly simple, and yet intricate and precise. It also provided an early example of Cropper's ability to fire off memorable guitar stings and riffs, one after the other. All this from a tune that used the same progression as "Last Night."

The second example from Booker T. and crew is 1967's "Hip Hug-Her," a title that was a play on a women's trouser style that was then fashionable. The organist carries the melody, Cropper's guitar interjects terse (and highly influential) comments.

The MGs often backed up Stax-Volt's star vocalists. In 1967, Stax paired soul superstar Otis Redding with Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas' daughter, who already had enjoyed a few hits. They had a huge R&B success with "Tramp," covering a Lowell Fulson song. It is a highly amusing diss contest with Carla (then in graduate school) dismissing Otis as being "from the Georgia woods" (which he was), for wearing overalls and needing a haircut, among other sins. His response - "I'm a lover! Oooo, I'm a lover!" Cropper contributes one memorable (and frequently imitated) riff after another. Also heard on this side are the Memphis Horns - trumpeter Wayne Jackson and saxophonist Andrew Love.

It's another (almost) perfect record - the only flaw being that Otis & Carla (as they were billed) were much too low in the mix. I've raised their level substantially, but Otis in particular is often off-mike.

Sam & Dave

The MGs and the Memphis Horns also supported the popular duo Sam & Dave (Sam Moore and Dave Prater), who are superb in "Soul Man" by David Porter and Isaac Hayes, who would become a soul superstar. This song had an afterlife when adopted by the Blues Brothers in the late 70s - who also were backed by Cropper.

Otis Redding

We complete this mini-festival of Stax-Volt hits with Otis Redding's valedictory song, "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay," released in 1968, a few months after the great singer died in a plane crash. The record was (and is) massively popular, deservedly so. Redding wrote the song with Cropper - listen to how the guitarist's usual stinging attack is transformed into sensitive support for Booker T. Jones on piano, the Memphis Horns and the touching vocal.

A brilliant record and a fine remembrance of the hugely talented co-authors.

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