Bass player Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn dies at 70

NEW YORK — Donald “Duck” Dunn, the bassist who helped create the gritty Memphis soul sound at Stax Records in the 1960s as part of the legendary group Booker T. and the MGs and contributed to such classics as “In the Midnight Hour,” ‘’Hold On I’m Coming” and “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay,” died Sunday at 70 while on tour in Tokyo..News of his death was posted on the Facebook site of his friend and fellow musician Steve Cropper, who was on the same tour. Cropper said Dunn died in his sleep.“Today I lost my best friend, the World has lost the best guy and bass player to ever live,” Cropper wrote on Twitter.Dunn was born in Memphis, Tenn., in 1941, and according to the biography on his official website, was nicknamed for the cartoon character by his father. His father, a candy maker, did not want him to be a musician.“He thought I would become a drug addict and die. Most parents in those days thought music was a pastime, something you did as a hobby, not a profession,” Dunn said.But by the time Dunn was in high school, he was in a band with Cropper.Cropper left to become a session player at Stax, the Memphis record company that would become known for its soul recordings and artists such as Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Isaac Hayes and the Staples Singers.Dunn soon followed Cropper and joined the Stax house band, also known as Booker T. and the MGs.It was one of the first racially integrated soul groups, with two whites (Dunn on bass and Cropper on guitar) and two blacks (Booker T. Jones on organ and Al Jackson on drums), and was later inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.The group had its heyday in the 1960s as backup for various Stax artists. Dunn played on Redding’s “Respect” and “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay,” Sam and Dave’s “Hold On I’m Coming” and Wilson Pickett’s “In the Midnight Hour.”.In the 1970s, the group’s members drifted apart. Jackson was killed in Memphis in 1975 by an intruder in his home.Dunn also did session work on recordings by Clapton, Young, Dylan, Rod Stewart, Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty, according to his discography.Dunn received a lifetime achievement Grammy in 2007.He is survived by his wife, June; a son, Jeff; and a grandchild, Michael, said Michael Leahy, Dunn’s agent.AP

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Bass player Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn dies at 70