Watching The Tide, the posthumous album by late guitar great Steve Cropper, is out today. Amongst its dozen tracks is My Angels Are Calling, a poignant number co-written and sung by Queen guitarist Brian May – featuring a solo from ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons – and a video for the song has been released today.
“We were all incredibly sad at Steve's passing, and I was already collaborating with Steve and his band on a track for this album," says May. "The backing track, which Jon Tiven, producer of the album and a very old friend of mine, sent me, includes Steve Cropper's unmistakable riff in a style which has influenced us all massively over the years.
"As soon as Steve was gone, I could hear something different in my head – a tribute to Cropper himself. The way I saw it, I wanted to try to step into his mind at the moment when he knew it was time to move on. So in the track I'm attempting to speak with his voice, and I felt that spiritually he would find a way of bringing his usual optimism into play.
"In the song, the angels are calling, and it seems to me that, along with being grateful for his wonderful life, he would imagine heaven to be something like going back to sitting on the dock of the bay, a moment in time that he shared with Otis Redding, creating that immortal hit, Dock Of The Bay. Having Billy Gibbons play a spectacular solo for me is the final wonderful bonus to this experience. The whole band did a terrific job, and I'm very proud to be a part of it.”
“Brian is singing from Steve's point of view,” says songwriter/producer Jon Tiven, who oversaw the project. "Looking back over his life and his road. It’s very powerful.”
Cropper, the legendary guitarist with Booker T. & the MG’s, the Blues Brothers, and many more, passed away on December 3 last year, aged 84. He had been working on Watching The Tide, the follow-up to 2024's Friendlytown, in the months prior to his death, and had completed 10 of its 11 tracks with Tiven. The album features several guest players in addition to May and Gibbons, including Ronnie Wood and Eric Clapton, who delivered a transcendent solo on the first single from the album, Ticket First.
"I told Eric, ‘Man, you just turned that song inside-out – I think we’re gonna have to give you a writer’s credit,” says Tiven. “And Eric said, ‘Well, anything to get my name next to Steve Cropper’s…’”
Watching The Tide – named in tribute to Dock Of The Bay – is out today.
