CHARLES
DOUGLAS

CHARLES
DOUGLAS

CHARLES
DOUGLAS

SATANICIDE

DAYTONA

LUNA
 
The Bridge a Tribute to Neil Young
 1989, No.6/Caroline
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Q Magazine - ***(3 Stars)

THE BRIDGE, featuring a wide palette of alternative-identified artists covering Neil Young songs, wasn't the first tribute album ever made, but it was the first one anyone noticed, and it may well have been the best. Its success, which had something to do with the fact that the artists were all rabid Young fans with palpable ideas about what to do with his songs, led to an outpouring of other tribute albums, most of which have been far less successful. Often they included--or, in one case, feted--the artists here, who became instant superstars on the tribute circuit.

But the superstar on THE BRIDGE remained Neil Young, whose songs withstand both the weirdest and most loving of interpretations. Among the former are Dinosaur Jr.'s very fast, very bratty punk take on the folky standby "Lotta Love" (aided by a guest singer who sounds mysteriously like Daniel Johnston) and Bongwater's tape-loop-aided version of "Mr. Soul" (a song Young himself has done many times and many ways). Others play it straight. The Pixies' "Winterlong," featuring one of the few recorded duets between Black Francis and Kim Deal, is a nearly perfect pop song; Soul Asylum's "Barstool Blues" sounds like a lost classic of flannel-shirted rock; and guitarist Henry Kaiser (performing with singers David and Rosanne Lindley) squeezes every bit of junkie juice out of his downer medley of "The Needle And The Damage Done" (on piano) and "Tonight's The Night" (with full band).

Essential for Young fans.

-- Muze.com

Reviewed in Rolling Stone Magazine (November 12, 1989)

**** (4 Stars): What Young does to On Broadway (From Freedom) is nothing compared to the garage-punk disemboweling of his own Lotta Love by Dinosaur Jr or the way Sonic Youth transforms Computer Age, his ode to the digital life, into a primitivist guitar brawl. But that s why The Bridge: A Tribute To Neil Young is such a gas. A compilation of eleven Young covers (fourteen on CD) by an all-star team of postpunk and college radio acts, The Bridge celebrates not only Young s enduring songwriting but the iconoclastic spirit and anarchic glee with which he continually challenges rock myth and defies rock convention. The best interpretations on the album overstep the songs original musical parameters without violating their emotional premises: the Pixies vibrant, loving Winterlong ; Soul Asylum s hooligan bash at Barstool Blues ; Nick Cave s version of Helpless, slowed to a funereal German-Cabaret crawl.

The brainchild of Terry Tolkin, an ardent Young fan who conceived the project, commissioned the tracks and made a commitment to donate potion of the proceeds to Young s favorite charity (the Bridge School, for handicapped children, in northern California), The Bridge does have its small share of misfires But the breadth of the album s artist roster which also includes Southern-gothic chanteuse Victoria Williams, avant-rock guitarist Henry Kaiser and acid-dementia specialists Flaming Lips is testament to the extraordinary scope of Young s influence on rock in the 80 s. David Fricke

In theory, The Bridge: A Tribute to Neil Young was a perfect concept, since most alternative bands of the late '80s owed the singer/songwriter a heavy debt. In practice, it wasn't entirely satisfying. Some groups, like Bongwater's collage of "Mr. Soul," made their interpretations self-consciously distinctive, while others, like Soul Asylum and Loop, played it close to the original. But the best moments came when a band played the song like it was their own. Listen to Sonic Youth's rampaging "Computer Age," Dinosaur Jr.'s faithful "Lotta Love," or The Pixies gorgeous take on "Winterlong" for proof.

-- Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All-Music Guide



ARTICLE

From Rolling Stone Magazine (July 13-27, 1989)

Terry Tolkin was 13 years old when he bought his first Neil Young album After the Goldrush, in 1972. Lyrically it spoke to me as an adolescent, he says, and I was hooked from there on.

17 years later, Tolkin an ardent Young devotee who also runs his own independent label, No.6 Records has repaid that debt of inspiration. The Bridge: A Tribute to Neil Young is a compilation album of Neil Young songs covered by 11 top alternative-rock acts, including Nick Cave ( Helpless ), the Pixies ( Winterlong ), Sonic Youth ( Computer Age ), Henry Kaiser ( The Needle and the Damage Done and Tonight s the Night ) and Dinosaur Jr ( Lotta Love ). Each track (there are fourteen on the CD) was specially commissioned by Tolkin, and a portion of the proceeds will go the the Bridge School, in San Francisco, the special education facility for which Young has done two major charity concerts. The Bridge will be distributed in America by Caroline Records.

Tolkin says he was inspired to do The Bridge by Young s 1988 Rolling Stone interview. I knew two of his children had cerebral palsy, he says. But I didn t know anything about the Bridge School, and that s where I first learned about it. Also, my own uncle and aunt have two kids with cerebral palsy. When he was speaking about Ben and Zeke in that article, I was flashing on my own cousins.

Tolkin also kanew the extent of Young s influence on the post-punk generation from his own experience booking and managing underground bands. All the bands that are on the record are big Neil fans, he says. When Tolkin contacted the Pixies about contributing to the LP, singer-guitarist Frank Black said Wow, that s fantastic. One of the most important songs of my life is Winterlong. I woke up every morning for a year listening to that song.

Deciding who would play which Neil song was, Tolkin says, a feat of coordination. Several bands wanted to do songs that other bands wanted to do. It was a matter of me deciding who would be better at what track.

Although Tolkin has not spoken directly to Young about the album, he has been in contact with Young s management company, Lookout Management, and with Young s wife Pegi, who runs the Bridge School. She was really open about it and receptive, Tolkin says. I assume that Neil is very aware of the project and that there is some tacit approval.

-- David Fricke

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