EAST BAY — When a reporter called Dan Lilley to find out how much he loved Neil Young’s music, the answer was evident before a single question was posed. As soon as Mr. Lilley picked up the phone, the familiar strains of “Shakey” were heard in the background of his East Providence home.

“I’m listening to ‘The Archives’ as we speak,” said Mr. Lilley, referring to the recently released, first installation of a massive overhaul of Young’s entire body of work. Mr. Lilley bought the DVD version, a 10-disc set covering the years 1963-72, which set him back a cool $199. That’s a lot of love.

“I just found a hidden track — in order to find them you have to search around,” said Mr. Lilley, who discovered one such long-lost gem after clicking on a roach clip icon. An English teacher at Central High School in Providence, he has the entire summer to explore all the goodies buried within Young’s “Archives.”

Listen to Simply Rad, an ‘80s tribute band, perform A-Ha’s one-hit wonder, “Take on Me.”

Mr. Lilley isn’t content just to listen to Neil Young, however. He’s one of many musicians who pay tribute to their musical heroes by recreating their sound on stage. The band Forever Young, which also features Mark Cutler of Riverside and Becky Chace of Barrington, has more than 40 Neil Young songs in its repertoire. And if you close your eyes, you just might imagine Neil standing in front of you, banging out “Cinnamon Girl” or “Everybody Knows This is Nowhere.”

“From my standpoint, I really like to sound like Neil Young, but I wouldn’t say everyone feels the same way,” said Mr. Lilley, adding that he may be the biggest Young fan in the group. “I even named my kid Neil. If you play guitar and you’re over 25 or 30, you’re going to be influenced by Neil Young. Neil Young’s a god.”

A few years ago during a songwriting showcase in Pawtucket, Mr. Lilley, Mr. Cutler and songwriter John Fuzek ended a set with Young’s “Powderfinger.” “Fuzek got the idea to turn this into something more than an occasional thing,” said Mr. Lilley. “I already had 35 Neil Young songs under my belt — no problem — and the others knew quite a few too.”

When you’re covering such an iconic musical figure, is there much pressure to justice to the songs? “That’s the easy part, to tell you the truth,” said Mr. Lilley, who’s a seasoned musician like everyone else in the band. “It helps having Mark, since he’s a monster on guitar, and singing with Becky is a dream come true. They like having me in the band because I can hit the high notes.”

The hard part, he said, is scheduling concerts. Forever Young is a side project for its members, who have played solo or in their own bands — Love Train for Mr. Lilley and the Dino Club for Mr. Cutler, for example — for years. “Because there’s so many people and everyone has gigs already, it’s hard to find an open date.”

Thus, Forever Young plays about only five to six gigs a year. “We wouldn’t want to do a whole lot more anyway, because then it turns into your main band,” said Mr. Lilley.

When they do manage to get together, however, Forever Young has been seeing plenty of new faces, including the Rusties, which are to Neil Young what the Trekkies are to “Star Trek.” These hardcore fans gather online and travel many miles to see or hear anything to do with their object of affection.

“I was surprised to see the Rusties there,” said Mr. Lilley, recalling the time he was invited to drop everything and travel with them to the annual Bridge School Benefit, a fund-raiser in Mountain View, Calif. organized by Neil Young and his wife. Even Mr. Lilley wasn’t infatuated enough with Neil Young to leave his family behind for a cross-country road trip.

“Some of those Rusties are out of their minds,” he said, laughing.

More tributes and ‘signatures’

When asked why there seem to be more tribute bands popping up on the music scene, Mr. Lilley said “people are still rabid fans of certain groups,” pointing to tribute bands for Aerosmith, AC/DC and Journey. “They want to go out and see it done well.”

Paul Petit, the lead singer and harmonica player in the Detroit Breakdown Blues Band — a J. Geils “signature” band — agreed.

“I guess they’re trying to pinpoint a certain crowd,” he said, adding that the bar regulars are not among them. “With these tribute type or signature bands, you have the fanatics or people with a direct interest in that type of music who tend to travel over state lines. They know exactly what they’re going to see, what they’re going to hear.”

Are they trying to recapture their youth? “Absolutely. People are singing these songs over and over in their head,” said Mr. Petit, who recalled singing “One Last Kiss,” a slower J. Geils song, and watching older bald-headed guys with tattoos singing along. “What does that tell you?”

Like Forever Young, the Detroit Breakdown Blues Band is made up of many veterans of the local music scene, with members formerly playing in Shot in the Dark, the Mill City Rockers, Mainbreak, Young Neal and the Vipers and other bands.

“Once I hit 50 and my 10-year-mark with Shot in the Dark, I decided what I felt was going to work,” said Mr. Petit. The band concentrates mainly on early J. Geils — with other artists such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, Gary Moore and Marshall Tucker thrown in for good measure — because it’s high-energy music that’s accessible to many people, he said.

“So far we’ve been out there a little over 90 days and every time we’ve played it’s had a major impact,” he said, noting that over 100 people were turned away in the rain during a recent Fall River gig.

The band has given Billy “Bam Bam” Donahue’s musical career a second act. He was playing drums in Young Neal and the Vipers when, in 1998, his hands “started getting messed up and I couldn’t hold my drum sticks any more.” The problem lingered over the next couple years, even though the band recorded two albums.

“By 2001, I had to leave. I just couldn’t play anymore. I tried to get in the mainstream of life. But I’m a musician — I’ve been playing since I was 9,” said Mr. Donahue, who lives in Bristol.

His luck turned last summer, however, when he underwent elbow surgery to correct the problem. The final piece of the puzzle came shortly afterward, when he ran into an old friend in a local gym.

“I was rehabbing my hand at East Bay Fitness in Warren when I saw Richard Jiacovelli,” he said, referring to the former Shot in the Dark keyboard player who works for the Warren Public Works Department. Mr. Donahue learned his friend was looking for a drummer for a new band.

“I said, don’t look any further.”

The band started rehearsing in August. “Once we started playing, it just jelled,” said Mr. Donahue. “We love J. Geils and we grew up with J. Geils. We figured no one else is covering it — let’s do it. It’s fun to play and the people love it.”

The ’80s make a comeback

Simply Rad doesn’t pay tribute to one particular band, but to an entire musical era: The ’80s.

“We don’t discriminate,” said keyboard player Diana Brigham of Bristol, who also handles bookings for the band which covers such artists as Cyndi Lauper, Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, Duran Duran, Men at Work, The Romantics and others. The group’s very name is a takeoff on Simply Red, the British pop/soul band which had a big hit in “Holding Back the Years” in 1986.

The band has members from Bristol (Ms. Brigham and guitarist Tim Nolan), Warren (bassist Caleb Cook) and Providence (singer Serena Andrews and drummer Matt Cote) and has been around in one form or another for two to three years. “Every incarnation has been better than the others,” said Ms. Brigham, whose wedding in August will be the first gig for the band’s latest lineup.

In September the band will play an “’80s prom,” she said. “You get all dressed up and play the music of the ’80s as though is was the prom.”

The band’s members aren’t trying to recapture their youth, however. “I was born in 1980,” said Ms. Brigham. “We’re all under 35.”

They just love that ’80s sound. Although Simply Rad isn’t the only band paying musical tribute to that decade, Ms. Brigham said the band’s use of technology — sound effects, loops, delays and reverb — distinguishes it from the others.

“The thing that makes us different ... is we have that authentic keyboard sound. I bring two computers with me to every show. We try to make it sound like it did then,” she said, pointing to the band’s take on A-Ha’s one-hit-wonder, “Take on Me,” as an example.

“There really aren’t any bands who cover it the way it really sounded. It really is a tribute — not a cover,” she said.

Ms. Brigham’s excited to have new singer Serena Andrews in the band, partly because she believes it will give Simply Rad a better sense of authentic ‘80s fashion. During a rehearsal at her Bristol home last week, Ms. Brigham sported pink gloves, a keyboard design on her waistband and an oversize button depicting Joey McIntyre from New Kids on the Block.

“In the past I’ve been the only girl and I dressed up. Now that we have another female singer, she’s going to be dressing up as well,” said Ms. Brigham.

And what about skinny ties?

“We have ties galore!” she said.

Judge for yourself

Want to hear how the bands mentioned in this article match up to the original recordings? Here’s how:

• Forever Young’s playing the 29th Annual Heritage Festival at Pierce Field & Stadium, 201 Mercer St., East Providence, on Friday, July 17. To hear songs or watch videos, visit www.foreveryoungneilyoungtribute.com.

• The Detroit Breakdown Blues Band’s playing the Warren Concert Series at the Burr’s Hill Park bandshell, across from the Town Beach on Water Street, on Wednesday, July 22, from 6:30-8 p.m. The band will also be appearing at Jacky’s Galaxie, 383 Metacom Ave., Bristol, on Friday, July 24. Watch a video of the band in action at www.myspace.com/detroitbreakdownbluesband.

• Listen to Simply Rad pay tribute to the 80s at www.SimplyRad.net or www.myspace.com/simplyradri.