09/01/2026
Steve Cropper, curry and me
The first time I met Steve, who has very sadly died aged 84, I took him and his wife Angel for lunch to the Agra, an Indian restaurant in Whitfield St, the one with the photo of a young Muhammad Ali on the wall. I later discovered that our friends from the US generally preferred plainer fair. But before long, Steve had the cooks out from the kitchen, enquiring into the herbs and spices used in the curry. “Cooking Indian food is my hobby,” he said. Thus started a long friendship and many curries, washed down with some very decent reds.
That first time must have been January 1990, when Booker T & the MG’s played a reunion show with the Blues Brothers at the then-Town & Country Club. Ace had been running a Stax reissue programme since 1987, with the release of the “Soul Limbo” LP in 1988 followed by the rest of the ‘yellow’ Stax albums. We had only just issued the “Jammed Together” album as well as the “Uptight” OST, Booker was pleased to hear about that. Our reissue of Steve’s first solo outing, 1969’s “With A Little Help From My Friends”, came out in 1992.
As the MG’s didn’t cut a new album until 1994’s ‘That’s The Way It Should Be’, we were sort of their local label at the time.
A year after that T&C show, I caught up with Steve at three remarkable nights at the Lone Star Café in NYC, celebrating the launch of the first Stax-Volt complete singles set (A-sides and a few select Bs). Over the three nights it was the glory years all over again, with Carla, Eddie Floyd and, on the last two shows, Sam Moore. With Steve Jordan replacing the late Al Jackson, the three original MG’s held the whole show together, Steve’s deft guitar licks as in the pocket as ever.
We didn’t get a curry that time, not that there were many curry places in NYC then.
From around 2008, for about six years, Steve turned up regularly, often on shows with John Steel’s Animals, where they backed him up. Now, by his own admission, he wasn’t the greatest of singers, though the guitar playing more than compensated for that. But at the Borderline one night he did a version of ‘Dock Of The Bay’, that somehow channelled his feelings about Otis, whom he revered, in a very emotional and moving rendition. He talked about what an immense presence Otis was – “you knew when he walked into a room, even if you had your back to the door”.
There was another show with Eddie Floyd at the 229 Club. These weren’t big venues, but Steve just wanted to play. He was playing a Japanese-made guitar and my old pal Denis asked him why he didn’t use the Telecaster anymore – this one’s easier to play, he said. And that intro to ‘Soul Man’ still sounded as fresh as it did on the 1967 Stax 45 I first heard it on.
Steve has always been known for his minimalist style, the well-placed chords, the neat runs, but the intro to ‘Soul Man’ has to go down as one of the great riffs of all time.
We mused over the time that the Beatles nearly recorded at Stax and, though taken with the idea that he might have been involved as house producer, he candidly admitted that “Revolver” was just fine with George Martin at the helm. I told about ‘12-Bar Original’ from “Anthology Two”, recorded during the “Rubber Soul” sessions, an MG’s knock-off, if ever there was one.
One night we were walking through Soho after a show at Ronnie Scott’s. A very camp guy approached him in Soho Square, jive talking in a fairly salacious way. Steve totally took it in his stride and the two of them were soon laughing and joshing. There were three young guys wearing pork pie hats and tight jackets, sitting on a low wall. ‘That’s Steve Cropper,’ I said. They looked incredulous, then Steve handed them signature guitar picks. They had a story to tell next day.
The Malabar Junction Indian restaurant on Great Russell Street was a favourite during these years. They did it very spicy if asked and Steve tended to ask.
He kept making records and producing long after Stax had folded, but for me the standout is 2011’s “Dedicated”, the aptly-titled tribute to the “5” Royales and, more importantly, their guitarist and major influence on Steve’s playing, Lowman Pauling. With a line-up that included rock stars, a blues king, old friends and just great singers and players, Steve nailed it, sounding like he was having the time of his life. A CD worthy of many repeated listens, well overdue a reissue on one of those new-fangled long players.
I must mention his career as a producer, as I did to Steve one night over a wine or two, or three maybe. The idea was a Steve Cropper producer/arranger/side man compilation. Part of an occasional Ace series. The last time I saw him was, appropriately, in an Indian restaurant called Zaika. It was the night before the 2017 Albert Hall show celebrating 50 years since the UK Stax/Volt tour. “Where’s my tracklisting?” I said, which launched him into a hilarious diatribe to the rest of the table that I was giving him a hard time. Maybe one day this tribute to him will surface.
I am very glad that I got to spend many hours in conversation in curry houses with Steve Cropper and got to know the Southern gentleman, as easy with people he met as he was with whatever guitar he had in his hand. A Soul Man through and through.
Roger Armstrong
December, 2025
