Timeline: 1995

Brian Wilson documentary

Features in I Just Wasn't Made for These Times, a documentary about Brian Wilson.

Mata Hari opera

The opera Mata Hari, with music written by Cale and the libretto by Franz Harland, is performed in October in Vienna, Austria. Mata Hari - stage name of Margaretha Geertruida Zelle - (1876-1917) was a Dutch exotic dancer who made it big in Paris. She was executed by the French who had accused her of espionage for the Germans during the Great War.

The performance was taped on video. Never released. Cale had played the lead in Harland's short movie The Houseguest in 1989.

S.F. Seals covers "The Soul Of Patrick Lee"

American indie rock band S.F. Seals cover The Soul Of Patrick Lee on their Truth Walks in Sleepy Shadows album.

Eden wins a price for mum and dad

Daughter Eden, aged ten, wins the Eloise contest. Eloise is a 6-year-old, who lives at the Plaza Hotel in New York, stars in a series of books by Kay Thompson. The contests commemmorated the 40th anniversary. The price included a free weekend at the Plaza for her and her family and a donation to her school.

Sol Invictus covers "Hedda Gabbler"

English post-punk band Sol Invictus covers Hedda Gabler. It can be found on the Im Blutfeuer compilation and the 20th Anniversary Edition of their In The Rain album (2015).

Julian Schnabel's "Every Silver Lining Has A Cloud"

On May 24 he attends a reception in New York for the release of painter and director Julian Schnabel's album Every Silver Lining Has A Cloud in New York. Cale would write incidental music for his movie Basquiat.

Rock & Roll, PBS, USA

He is interviewed about The Velvet Underground for the PBS series Rock & Roll. He is featured in Episode 7 (The Wild Side). Lou Reed and Maureen Tucker were interviewed as well. The 10-part series is broadcasted by the BBC in 1996, with another title: Dancing in the Street: a Rock and Roll History, with Hang On To Yourself as the title for the episode.

Scoring and performing "Antártida"

Composes and releases the soundtrack of Antártida, a film directed by Manuel Huerga. Sterling Morrison and Chris Spedding play guitar, and Maureen Tucker plays drums on his cover of the Jim Carroll song People Who Died.

He recorded a new piano version of Antarctica Starts Here for the scene wherein the lead actors visit a concert.

Peel Slowly and See box set

Release of the comprehensive Velvet Underground 5CD box set Peel Slowly and See, with a booklet containing an essay by Rolling Stone writer David Fricke, who had access to the archive of Sterling Morrison. The banana is on the box can be peeled.

Features all four studio albums by the band. Lots of outtakes, rarities, demos and live tracks are included in this set.

Disc 1 is dedicated to the rehearsal tapes of the Velvets playing in the apartment shared by Cale and Reed at 56 Ludlow Street in New York, July 1965.

Nico/Icon

Features in Nico/Icon, a documentary by Susanne Ofteringer. He performs Nico's Frozen Warnings. Reissued on DVD in 2001.

"The Long Voyage" duet with Suzanne Vega

Sings The Long Voyage, a duet with American singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega, on the Hector Zazou album Songs From the Cold Seas. He also wrote the music for the track.

The lyrics are based on Les Silhouettes, a poem by Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde. Cale also collaborated with Zazou in 1992 on the Sahara Blue album.

The Long Voyage is also released as a CD single, with the full and edited version of the song:

1. The Long Voyage (edit: 4:07)
2. The Long Voyage (edit: 5:32)

The song is also released on a CDEP with seven different remixes:

Sterling Morrison dies

Sterling Morrison, guitar player extraordinaire, dies on August 30, 1995, in Poughkeepsie, New York. Morrison succumbed to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Cale and Maureen Tucker attend a memorial service at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Poughkeepsie on September 2. Cale reads a poem by Dylan Thomas: And Death Shall Have No Dominion and remembers him in an obituary, Friends for Life:

"My fondest memories of Sterling come from the days when we carried out our assault on the sensibilities of teenage America with Moe and Lou in the band. There were great days and nights of rambunctious shenanigans, some of which were part of an ongoing tussle over who would play bass. I loved his bass playing as much as his guitar playing, but Sterling, not wishing to be known as the bass player, would always opt for his favorite, the guitar. At this he excelled also, and whenever the story of the band is recounted Sterling will always loom large in the legend. But he also had another strange effect on me - one that took me back to my home in Wales, what I'd learn from my mother. It was the great value placed on the acquisition of knowledge. Whether he was innately gifted (which I suspect) or if it was the way he showed this from day to day - by his pride in his children Tommy and Mary Anne's progress or in a well-crafted guitar line - it was a clear signal of the intangible values of humanity.

People leave a trace not always visible, and Sterling continued to show this to me last Tuesday when I said my farewell to him. It was in the impressive dignity he showed as he struggled. He does it today in helping me understand his passing; and I consider myself very fortunate in having known him as a dear friend and companion and also at having been allowed the opportunity to tell him last week how much he had meant to me over the years. He was a scholar and a gentleman of great resource and that is how I will remember him."

Happy Mondays compilation

Two Cale produced tracks - Tart Tart and Kuff Damm, are included on Loads (& Loads More), a single collection by English indie dance band Happy Mondays. Both tracks are from their debut album Squirrel And G-man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out) that he produced in 1986.

Kuff Dam is included on the Conflict & Catalysis: Productions & Arrangements 1966-2006 compilation album (2012).

N'Oublie Pas Que Tu Vas Mourir

Releases of N'Oublie Pas Que Tu Vas Mourir, a soundtrack for a movie directed by Xavier Beauvois.

"The music on this CD was all delivered from several passes at scenes from the film, that, in some cases, ultimately did not require music. There was a conscious decision to alter the tone from piano to string quartet as the action moved to Italy, as well as the rubric of having the music not enter after diagnosis."

Sally Timms covers "Half Past France"

English singer and guitarist Sally Timms covers Half Past France on To the Land of Milk & Honey album, her debut as a solo artist.

"Perfect Moon" for Ivan Kral

Writes the music and plays piano on Perfect Moon, a track on Ivan Kral's Nostalgia album. Patti Smith is the singer. She also wrote the lyrics.

Kral was a member of the Patti Smith Group (1975-1979), acting as co-writer bass player and guitarist. The song Citizen Ship from her Wave album is about him. He succumbed to cancer on February 2, 2020, aged 71.

Eat/Kiss in Lille

Records the music for Eat and Kiss, two Andy Warhol films, live at the Theatre Sebastopol, Lille, France, on October 13. Released on the Eat/Kiss, Music for the Films by Andy Warhol album in 1997. Originally performed by Cale, Sterling Morrison and Maureen Tucker at the Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, USA (November 18/19, 1994).

Fausto Rossi covers "Close Watch"

Italian singer Fausto Rossi covers (I Keep A) Close Watch on his L'Erba album

Visit to the Andy Warhol Museum

He visits the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh with his daughter Eden and wife Risé in November.

© 1999- Hans Werksman