Steve Cropper in Songwriters' Hall

Here's some good news about Steve Cropper from Yahoo!:

"To have these songs last as long as they have is really overwhelming," Cropper told The Associated Press before the ceremony. "It's still exciting to me. To me, there's nothing more exciting than a song you wrote and produced in the studio being played on the radio." Besides Cropper, other inductees included John Fogerty, Isaac Hayes and David Porter, Richard and Robert Sherman, and Bill Withers. Smokey Robinson, a previous inductee, was picked to get the Johnny Mercer Award, while relative newcomer Alicia Keys was selected for the Starlight Award, given to accomplished young songwriters.

...Cropper, a member of Booker T & the MGs and an integral part of the Stax Records legacy, has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But he said the songwriters' honor was special. "From my point of view," he said, "I look at this as almost as the Academy Awards of the music industry. It's more about your work and what you've done, rather than whether you've had a hot year."
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I can't think of anyone who deserves this more than Steve Cropper. In related news, I've got a copy of the Frank Black record "Honeycomb." I'm not sure what I think yet, but will say that it is fascinating to hear how Cropper (all of them really) manages to assert his style without taking away the focus from the song. I'm sure he has plenty of ego, but it is not apparent in his playing at all. Imagine what someone else of Cropper's stature, say Eric Clapton, would do if he were to guest on a Frank Black record. I hate to think about it.