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MPR News Staff

John Warren Geils of The J. Geils Band dies at 71

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Today's Morning Edition music is from the J. Geils Band with "Hard Drivin' Man" from their 1972 live album "Full House."

We are playing it in honor of one of the band's founders, guitarist John Warren Geils, who died yesterday at the age of 71.

The J. Geils Band started out playing blues numbers like this one before recording pop hits like "Freeze Frame" and "Centerfold."

Geils said he started out as a jazz trumpet player but switched to guitar after hearing blues pioneers like Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. He said "that music felt very real to me — very raw, very much from the gut. It really became the foundation for everything that came later."