Steve Cropper has been playing hits like “Last Night,” “Midnight Hour,” “Time is Tight,” “Dock of the Bay” and “Soul Man” for decades. You might expect that he grows tired of them.
Not Steve Cropper, who still radiates deep gratitude for those recordings with the Mar-Keys, Wilson Pickett, Booker T. and the MGs, Otis Redding and the Blues Brothers. He’s content with his legacy, and loves the opportunity to share these ageless moments with a succession of thankful crowds.
“You know, I’ve pretty much seen and done it all — and I’m comfortable where I’m at,” Steve Cropper told Mark Goodman of BluesWax. “Some guys don’t like to do the same thing or repeat themselves, and I kind of understand it.”
To a point, anyway. Take Booker T. and the MGs’ “Green Onions,” the song that Steve Cropper is both most associated with, and most apt to play. He happily obliges night after night after night.
“Booker T summed it up one time in New York,” Cropper adds. “We were doing a sound check and the house sound guy wanted us to play a complete song so he could get a feel, or mix, for the band. Booker looked at (late MGs bassist) Duck (Dunn) and me and said, ‘Let’s just do “Green Onions” for him.’ So we did ‘Green Onions,’ and when we got through Booker looked at us and said, ‘Man, I’ll never get tired of playing that song.’ So, that really sums it up for me.”
After completing yet another successful UK run of dates with the Animals late last year, Steve Cropper has been taking some time off the road. But you can best bet these old favorites will return once Cropper retakes the stage again.
“We just don’t get tired of playing that music; it goes down so well,” Cropper adds. “Songs like ‘Soul Man’ and ‘Midnight Hour’ are still great songs. People still like to hear them, and still like to dance to them — so I still enjoy playing them.”
