The frenetic pace of Steve Cropper’s time at Stax Records kept him so busy, there was often little time to actually take the stage to play. That made the rare moments of respite, when he and childhood friend Donald “Duck” Dunn could simply unwind, all the more memorable.
“We had no time to perform,” Cropper tells the Press and Journal, “because we’d be working seven days a week. We’d literally go home, take a shower then head back to the studio. Occasionally, on the weekends, we’d get time off to go fishing or play golf. I remember Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn and I would show up at the first tee at daylight, play nine holes then work in the studio all day. It was hectic, but we were young and full of energy.”
In the end, that meant Cropper’s fingerprints were on much of the Stax legacy, as a songwriter, sideman, producer, A&R man and member of hitmaking Booker T. and the MGs with Dunn. Even in his earliest days around the legendary Memphis-based label, when he was working as a lowly entry-level assistant, Steve Cropper stayed busy.
“I’d work in the record shop during the day, then at night I’d be editing, mixing tapes and so on, which I really enjoyed,” Cropper says. “Other times I’d be filing contracts with the musicians’ union and looking after the business side, who wrote what song, etc, as well as playing. It was just nonstop.”
Decades later, Steve Cropper’s Stax Records experience is still defined by how much they accomplished, over a remarkably short period. “When I think back to my time at Stax, the thing I miss most is the routine of going to work every morning then working 15 hours a day,” he says. “We loved it, everyone was there for the same reason — a love of music.”
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