Steve Cropper...the colour blind, silent partner and sideman...

The World has been a very depressing place for the last few months and it had drained my will to write or do anything that required too much thought, but a friend has just ditched Facebook and has gone cold turkey and needs something to take their mind off relationship status's, inane updates from people that they used to know and now remember why they "used" to know them and various guilt laden updates from charities that coerce them into donating more money (having spent their $millions on online marketing companies).

I had a few things that I could've written about, fitting in and race were on the agenda, WW1 and Passchendaele were also a consideration but I have plumped for something not quite so heavy, I don't feel very strong at the moment, physically and mentally. I've not been running and have been sleeping heavily and have had the feeling that I am coming down with something for a few months. I probably just need to get my fat lazy bod out on the pavements and country lanes to enjoy the fresh air, or curse the freshness of the wind in my face as I hack and splutter my way down the damnable lonely roads, away from civilization and my bed.

I actually decided to write about music but not my usual fare, I have been rediscovering music from my distant past. I was a rock 'n' roll fan, Eddie Cochran, Elvis, Gene Vincent etc but as that spilled into the '60's, I was also a big fan of the Beatles and many of the sounds of the late 50's and 60's. The 60's was a remarkable period for music, youth discovered their voice and fashion sense and music moved on. One of the trackers for the development of music during that period, for me, is the Who. They started off as an R&B band, developed the London sound and the Mod scene and then progressed into the archetypal rock band, a singer and guitarist both blessed with the most amazing of gifts, a singer with the personality, looks and voice to carry the band and the guitarist with the chops to hold his own and the songwriting ability that many would kill for. Despite my admiration and love of the Who, this is not about them.

It is about the other side of 60's music, often overlooked but from artists that produced some of the most incredible and moving music of any era and my thoughts were started by a TV show about sidemen.

This is about Steve Cropper to be precise. For anyone of a certain age, Steve Cropper and Donald Duck Dunn were the guitarist and bass player with the Blues Brothers but prior to that they were a duo that played on most of the songs that came out of Stax and they were part of Booker T and the MG's. Steve Cropper wrote so many hits that we all know and love that it is unbelievable that the World at large doesn't celebrate him. "Knock on Wood", "In the Midnight Hour", "Green Onions", "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" and "Time is Tight" amongst many others. I knew of him, of course, I have enough Stax records in my collection but I had no idea that he was such an integral part of the songs and the sound.

Steve Cropper was the eternal sideman, backing up some of the great names with his distinctive guitar tone and his instinctive musical talents but it was with Otis Redding that he seemed to find his musical soulmate. The TV show concentrated on his relationship with Otis and they were really good friends, it was very sad to see the pain in his face when he spoke about Otis's death, it obviously still cut him deeply to speak of it. They socialised together, wrote together, all this at a time when race divided the US. Steve Cropper saw music and where other people saw colour and division, he was either oblivious or really just didn't care (as with many musicians, it is all about the music, they don't see colour, religion, race or barriers, they just see musical notes). Otis Redding requested Steve Cropper as part of his touring band, the two of them were a partnership, writing 17 hit songs together, the final one they wrote, "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay", Otis never saw completed, dying in a plane crash before he could hear the song finished.

Here is Booker T and the MG's with what I think is an inspiring performance of "Time is Tight" Dunn on Bass and Cropper on guitar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7VAem_LXj8

This is the same man that played with Sam and Dave on "Soul Man", the same man that was a silent partner in the Blues Brothers, humble and quiet but with a unique tone and a wonderful natural touch. I listen to him play and I am inspired to pick up my acoustic and learn some of his songs. Many musicians write to push the boundaries of their instrument and others, like Steve Cropper, write for the song, it is all about the song, never about him and never about the guitar.

There are many sidemen that deserve mentions, Jimmy Page allegedly played on half the records of the 60's but this post is about Steve Cropper because of his unstinting love of music, his talent and instinctive abilities and for the songs that he co-wrote, the colour blind, silent partner and sideman that made a huge contribution to to music, I am sure that he will still continue on, unrecognised by all but a few, but I just wanted to mention his name and to sing his praises.

Here is the official video for "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTVjnBo96Ug

Notice that Steve Cropper doesn't feature in the video, he co-wrote the song, played on the song and finished it after the death of Otis Redding, adding the electric guitars, the sound of the sea and the gulls and he still remains in the shadows, the sideman.