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If you're looking for a one-stop, ultimate source for exquisitely crafted rhythm and lead guitar parts, you won’t find a better mentor than Steve Cropper.
If you're looking for a one-stop, ultimate source for exquisitely crafted rhythm and lead guitar parts, you won’t find a better virtual mentor than Telemaster, producer, and songwriter Steve Cropper. Over the course of a half century, during which he virtually defined the “Memphis sound,” Cropper has been laying down charismatic guitar figures that have since become must-know moves for every working guitarist.
The decade between 1961 and 1971 found Cropper—armed primarily with a Fender Telecaster and various Fender amps from the period—cranking out hits with Booker T. & the MG’s (“Green Onions”), the Mar-Keys (“Last Night,” on which Cropper played organ), Eddie Floyd (“Knock on Wood”), Sam & Dave (“Soul Man”), and Otis Redding (“[Sittin’ on the] Dock of the Bay”), and culminated with the release of his first solo album.
In fact, if Cropper never played another note after 1971, he would have still achieved guitar immortality.
It’s this particularly fertile period that we’ll be examining here. Simply put, Cropper’s playing has always been about melody, phrasing, timing, arranging, restraint, and coming up with parts that are a blast to play. And he manages to do it all with fewer notes than anyone else! Let’s investigate.
ONIONS REDUX
We decoded Cropper’s first chorus from Booker T. & the MG’s 1962 classic, “Green Onions,” in the October, 2013 installment of You’re Playing It Wrong, but that, plus a couple of other key parts, certainly merit mention here.
In case you missed it, Ex. 1a (above) reprises the revelation that Cropper’s anticipated I-, IV-, and V-chord Tele stabs were actually voiced a fourth above the organ chords to create