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The legendary guitarist Steve Cropper, the celebrated guitarist with the iconic band Booker T & the MGs, has left us at the age of 84.

The guitar virtuoso, who contributed to and co-wrote the classic song Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay and Wilson Pickett's In the Midnight Hour, died this past Wednesday in Nashville.

Often cited among the finest studio bands in the history of soul music, the quartet Booker T & the MGs was the house band of the historic Memphis label Stax Records and is primarily known for their classic 1962 track Green Onions.

Cropper also joined the comedy music group The Blues Brothers in the late 1970s and featured on their successful version of Soul Man.

"Steve was a beloved guitarist, composer, and producer whose extraordinary talent inspired generations around the world," his family stated in a release.

"While we grieve the loss of a loved one and companion, we are consoled knowing that Steve will endure through his music," they added.

A cause of death was not immediately known.

A colleague, Eddie Gore, recalled he was with Cropper recently in Nashville, where the guitarist was in the process of creating new music.

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

A Prolific Career

Ranked the runner-up for guitarist of all time by a British music magazine in 1996, Cropper first found employment at Stax in 1961 at the age of 20.

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

The band was entered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.

"I've always thought of myself as a rhythm guitarist," Cropper said in a previous conversation. "I enjoy the fact that I can play something over and over, while other guitar players avoid that approach. They won't even play the same lick twice."

Not only was he a guitarist, Cropper was a prolific songwriter, and in addition to Dock of the Bay and In the Midnight Hour, he co-wrote Eddie Floyd's hit Knock on Wood.

According to available information, he was "involved in virtually every record released by Stax from late 1961 through the end of 1970".

"We would often spend long days in the studio," Cropper once recalled. "I think we had 17 or 18 artists signed to the label, so we had a very hectic schedule."