Bassist Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn dead at 70

Donald “Duck” Dunn, whose powerful bass notes built the foundation for hits like Otis Redding’s “Respect,” Sam and Dave’s “Soul Man” and Wilson Pickett’s “In the Midnight Hour,” died Sunday morning in Tokyo. He was 70.

Best known for his work with Booker T and the MGs, the famous Memphis session band, Dunn had been in semi-retirement for years. There had been no indications of serious health problems.

Steve Cropper, Dunn’s lifelong friend and musical comrade in Booker T and the MGs, said he died in his sleep.

He had played two shows in Tokyo Saturday night.

Cropper wrote on his Facebook page, “Today I lost my best friend. The world has lost the best guy and bass player to ever live.”

Dunn grew up in Memphis and was largely self-taught on the bass. He said he originally tried guitar, but gave it up after he heard Cropper play.

“I decided there were plenty of guitar players,” he said. “What was needed was a bass.”

His first hit came in 1961 with the Memphis group the Mak-Keys, who recorded a hypnotic instrumental called “Last Night.”

He joined Cropper, Booker T. Jones and drummer Al Jackson in 1964 to form the most famous incarnation of Booker T. and the MGs.

Known for their infectious, rock-solid rhythms, the MGs backed every major Memphis artist in the late 1960s. They were crucial in creating the sound for stars like Wilson Pickett, Redding, Sam and Dave, Eddie Floyd and Arthur Conley.

Their fans included the Beatles, and over the years Dunn played behind artists like Muddy Waters, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, the Blues Brothers, Neil Young, Jerry Lee Lewis and Albert King.

The MGs were also one of the most harmoniously integrated groups in rock ‘n’ roll and soul music, since Cropper and Dunn were white and Jones and Jackson were black.

Dunn said it was simply never an issue.

Besides recordings, Dunn played himself in two “Blues Brothers” movies.

He was inducted with the rest of the MGs into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. They received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.

Dunn is the second of the MGs to die. Jackson was murdered in his home in 1975.

Dunn’s death also closely follows the death of trumpeter Wayne Jackson — no relation to Al — who was a longtime friend and the founder the Memphis Horns, a group that played on many of the same sessions as the MGs.