John Fisher

I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, and when I was a kid, Bob Seger was THE MAN. Long before he hit it big across the country with Nght Moves in 1976, we were rocking to Seger classics like "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man," "Heavy Music," "2+2=?", "Ivory," "Noah" . . . . .all huge hits on Detroit radio in the sixties, and probably for the most part unknown to the rest of America. Seger and his band (aka the Bob Seger System) acutally used to play highschool dances around Detroit when I was barely a teenager. The guy's been at this for a long time.

Now, you can probably make a case that Seger's best days are behind him. He hasn't made any breakthrough music in a long time. But since he's paired up against Steve Miller in March Mountain Bandness, I thought I'd step in and let you know where my allegiance lies. Sure, Steve Miller is a great guitarist and has some undeniable classics to his credit . . . and, much like Seger, he's not making new music that anybody's flipping out over these days.

For this midwestern guy, though, Bob Seger wins his bracket because . . . . well, because his music is the real soundtrack of my formative years. Sure, the Beatles and the Stones were everywhere, but along with all those Motown records, in Michigan, Bob Seger was ours.

Check him out here sometime in the mid-1960s, lip-synching his hit on some cheesey teen music show:

Check out the matchups, download and print the brackets, and cast your vote now in March Mountain Bandness.