Fresh Air · 2025-12-05 · 51 min · 7,683 words

Remembering Steve Cropper / Playwright Tom Stoppard

Listen to the original audio · Transcribed with NVIDIA Parakeet · Timestamps stay in sync with the live audio

This election season you can streamline your news intake with up first. Our team of reporters and editors works overnight so you can start every morning with three stories you need to know in short episodes, 12-14 minutes long, to save you time and your sanity. Follow up first on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Fresh Air. I'm David Biancooley.

Steve Cropper, the guitarist whose influential work for Stax Records in Memphis helped define soul music in the 1960s and 70s, died Wednesday in Nashville. He was eighty four years old. Today we listen back to an archive interview with Cropper. As a member of Booker T and the MGs, the in-house rhythm section at Stax, Cropper played guitar on some of the greatest soul hits of the 60s. Records by Carla and Rufus Thomas, Wilson Pickett, Sam and Dave, and Otis Redding.

I've been loving you. Too long to stop there. You attend. And you want to be free. My love is growing stronger as you become a habit to me, who am loving you too long.

That is the first couple of minutes. The rest is $1.

We already have this episode, so unlocking it is cheap and permanent: the full transcript (51 minutes, 7,683 words), segment and word-level timestamps, and .txt, .srt, .vtt and word-level JSON downloads, as many times as you like, forever.

No account needed, we create one from your checkout email. With credits it is 1 credit; packs start at 10 episodes for $5, and monthly plans are cheaper still.

get it now

Ready in about two minutes.

Pay once, no subscription. Credits never expire.

Transcribing every week? Monthly plans start at $9, about 23 cents an episode.

Secure checkout by Stripe. No account needed: we create one from your email. By paying you agree to the terms.