Steve Cropper - Interview Part 2 Recorded Live: 11/4/1984 - Rock Influence - , More Steve Cropper at Music Vault: www.musicvault.com Subscribe to Music Vault on RU-vid: goo.gl/DUzpUF
He comes across as modest and yet he's been one of the cornerstones of modern music. A living legacy. I consider Cropper the most important living American.
spurnthemuse I've been a musician for 20 yard and I've never heard of him. Underrated, in that unless you're really searching, his name isn't common to hear. imo
Steve Cropper was a major influence on me. In 1967 I was 14 years old, in Jr. High, 8 grade and Stax Records was blowing out hits like Donuts. I would later get to play professionally behind different recording Artists. But Steve played The Telecaster and in 1972 I found out why as most R&B hits sound like that guitar. So playing one gave me an edge. From James Brown and king records to Motown I could imulate different hit songs.And though I switched to the Strat in the early 80's, I had to alter it to get the neck and bridge combination sound which was only given on the Telecaster, because the Strat just gives the middle pickup for that twang treble sound. Steve is one of my guitar heroes. I remember seeing Steve Donald Booker T and their drummer on their hit album in the late 60's. He(Steve) had that Tele and Duck(Donald) the Tele looking Bass.
Met Steve, Duck and the band on several occasions Down Under. Lovely, gentle, generous, friendly and super talented guy. Invited me to a pre gig private warm up in Adelaide. Awesome night I will always remember!
That's awesome you're fortune. I was finally able to meet Booker last year at a small concert in DC where he read from his autobiography, answered audience?s, and played in band with his son. Such a gentleman and a wonderful night.
Good comment, good words! Steve has true groove and feeling. And soul! Life is getting fucked up. Politics ain't shit! Like Neil Young says, RUST NEVER SLEEPS!
Good comment, good words! Steve has true groove and feeling. And soul! Life is getting fucked up. Politics ain't shit! Like Neil Young says, RUST NEVER SLEEPS!
@6:44 - How do you play guitar? “They liked the way I played guitar. They like this kind of half country, half funky blues kind of style of guitar playing” There you have it, straight from the man himself. 🧨🧨
I actually brought a blonde maple neck Tele in 1972 because of his lead Tele on a BOOKER T & THE MG'S ALBUM. It was a 1960's model wish I still had it today.
Cropper, backing Jeff Beck, said "If I could play like that, I'd rule the world." Beck has said that the Stax sound was "it' for him once he heard 'Green Onions' said that was the first real band he'd heard and them and the Motown 'Wrecking Crew' inspired him. I used to listen to 'Loading Zone' and the interplay amazed me. Cropper seems like a top bloke. A great axeman and a fine man too; dignified and interesting.
Cropper is the prime example as to what makes a great guitarist - It's not about playing a million notes all over the fretboard like an angry wasp trapped in a jam jar - it's about the SONG and the FEEL. Less is more.
Santana said something similar. It is not about how many notes ect you can fit in or how fast you can play. I broke my pinky finger when i was in my early 20's. I was riding my bike through a safeway parking lot. It was my fault that hit a car that pulled out. But i had just enough time to slam on the brakes and slide ito the car sideways. My pinky got smashed against the car with all my weight behind it. So now my little left pinky finger is broken and slopes downward at a 45 degree angle. It makes playing frets with that finger not easy at all. I played from 18 till 24 when i broke my finger. I am 52 now and just yesterday started playing again. Throughout the years i would look at my guitar and play a little. Then put it down again frustrated by that finger. But yesterday i picke dit up and felt that love again that i initially felt. This had been missing many years. My wrists are shot from 35 years of hard core road riding on a bicycle. I cant play a million notes a sec like some people. Wish i could. But i cant. I have to make due with what i have.
Legendary giant of a man,no gimmicks,so refreshing,so unlike the ego maniacs in the rock field,yeah I'm talkin bout you Kiss,take a lesson on humility,the big heads mask their insecurity,
@@bholaoates1542 She sounds like the same interviewer who does CCR in Sydney 1972, an interview on you tube which she so blew. JCF and Steve did some good gigging together. Wish Fogerty had his chill way of looking at things.
@@johnnyneverletmedown53 I hear you, but Fogerty kind of has an excuse to be bitter considering how his bandmates and record company totally ripped him off big time.
@@bholaoates1542 Well the dancer pig did, but not so much his bandmates. John just has a 'woe is me ' thing going on, and blamed everyone else, without considering his part in it, IMHO. Good musician, but the other guys put up with just as much. And much of it was from others, tight but right?
@@johnnyneverletmedown53 I'm not so quick to blame myself when my buddies betray me. What do you mean when you say the other guys put up with just as much?
The more I see these interviews on utube the more I realise getting into music can pull you out of the shit from being on the bottom rung of life that and LUCK of course- it takes you off them that have all the say and everything put on a platter
he's riffs that he put into it...pretty much hung in my conscientiousness...that sound really haunts in a good way...a stinging guitar kind of thing....a driving force.
His Natal Sun is 28 deg Libra in the 9th House, very near the Scorpio cusp. Then his Moon Conjunct Mercury in Scorp in the 10th House. Capricorn Rising... Capricorn being the sign of Rock 'n' Roll musicians (Elvis, Janis, Bowie, on and on)...
Cropper wasn't technically a great guitar player, what made him great was his timing and knowing what to play and what not to play, he was on the money.
Notice how he dropped in Tal Farlow’s name toward the beginning? I don’t think the lady doing the interview has nary a clue about any of the musical references being laid out by Cropper.
the Colonel is a true pioneer and the creator of soul guitar besides being a prolific writer. When the man accepted me as a facebook friend , felt like I had walked on mars. He is under rated. if you dont know who is ..try watching a little known movie called the blues brothers or a 70s episode of SNL. He shows up routinely in the band.
Yes as you say he is a big part of the Stax sound... :-) One of my prefered guitar player too, while he isn't a solo man but he plays the good notes at the very good time, for me he thinks how to make the music sounds good, he seems to listen to others musicians...i like this way of playing: making music not showing himself...
Correction: Southern *musicians* aren't "racial". Neither is bringing up relevant history (see links below to read up). As Steve stated per describing their problems being a racially mixed band on the road in the South (problems which didn't happen to nearly the same degree to musicians above the Mason Dixon; segregated hotels, eating establishments off limits to black people, segregated gigs, the threat of violence towards blacks and so called 'N-lovers' (as whites treating blacks as equals, not subordinates, were called then), etc), Southerners at that time obviously took the cake when it came to being 'racial'... www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/the-rope-the-forgotten-history-of-segregated-rock-roll-concerts-126235/ www.billboard.com/articles/news/features/9474793/oral-history-black-artists-touring-segregated-south/
Side note: that’s one uncomfortable setup. Put the guy on a stool in the middle of a soundstage with nothing around him at all? Jeesh! Give the guy a chair at least.
The bad news Steve does not know where musical inspiration comes from. The purpose of music is to glorify God. That's where it comes from. The good news is, I was a sinner going to hell but Jesus Christ loved me so much, He paid for my sins on the cross! He took the wrath of God and by His wounds, I am healed. He died in my place and rose again! He says if I just believe I will go to heaven. And I believe! Woo hoo! And you can too because He loves you the same.
