LeftyBassist.com

May 13, 4:40 AM (ET)

TOKYO (AP) - Bass player and songwriter Donald "Duck" Dunn, a member of the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame band Booker T. and the MGs and the Blues Brothers band, has died in Tokyo. He was 70.

Dunn was in Tokyo for a series of shows. 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.

Miho Harasawa, a spokeswoman for Tokyo Blue Note, the last venue Dunn played, confirmed he died alone early Sunday. She had no further details.

Dunn, who was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1941, performed on recordings with Eric Clapton, Neil Young and many others, and specialized in blues, gospel and soul. He played himself in the 1980 hit movie "The Blues Brothers."

He received a lifetime achievement Grammy award in 2007 for his work with Booker T. and the MGs.

Saw this posted earlier today on friend's Facebook page. Shocked and saddened to see this. Seems we lost quite a few good musicians in the past year.... RIP Donald.....

RIP Duck. You were the only dude I knew who could get away with smoking a pipe on stage.

I loved his P Bass sound! A great inspiration! He is so cool in the Blues Brothers

A true legend...... RIP!

I consider him to be the second electric bass giant to emerge on the scene. First is Jamerson, third is McCartney. Duck's lines are still a major influence today. We all knew it was coming - he'd been sick for years - but he died as he lived, on tour playing bass.

"Jake ain't lyin' though. We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline."

R.I.P. Duck Dunn

RIP Duck and thanks for all the great music.

Duck was one of the 1st bass players I ever searched out and discovered.

When I was a kid... 6 or 7... my sister had the double LP of the American Grafitti soundtrack, and my favorite song on there was "Green Onions."

About a year after I started playing bass... 14 or 15 years old... I got to a point where I wanted to learn every song I ever loved and began trying to figure out who played on that song... there was no internet then... but after a few trips to the library, I discovered Donald "Duck" Dunn.

Even though Duck didn't play on the original recording of that song, he was my gateway into an unfamiliar world. I was a punk/metalhead at that time, and Duck helped me discover how important the bass was to EVERYTHING I heard... it was at that point when I started buying lots of different music... soul and funk and R&B... and I spent as much time as I could between Iron Maiden, Metallica, and the Dead Kennedys, learning how to play The Blues Brothers, Wilson Pickett, etc, etc.

I even bought the cassette tape version of this book and learned a lot from it...



To this day, I throw on "Shake Your Tail Feather" to run through it once or twice... it's one of the greatest basslines ever, in my opinion.

Anyway... thanks Duck... glad to have known you.

One of the greats. Will never be forgotten. He never ever over played always in the groove.

Great sentiment Man... I'm going to look "Shake..." up on youtube, and look for that book!

If you don't have it, you must see/ get the Stax Volt tour of Norway 1967 DVD (I love that Duck left the covers on his Precision):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_mKy-a6 ... re=related