Timeline: 1995

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 (1876-1917) was a Dutch dancer who made it big in Paris. She was shot 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 1987.

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).

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).

Antártida

Composes and releases the soundtrack of Antártida. Sterling Morrison and Chris Spedding play guitar and Maureen Tucker plays drums on his cover of the Jim Carroll song People Who Died.

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 David Fricke. The banana is re-peelable.

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 Cale's apartment 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.

Long Voyage

Sings a duet with Suzanne Vega The Long Voyage on the Hector Zazou album Songs From the Cold Seas.

The lyrics are based on Silhouettes, a poem by Oscar Wilde.

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)

Remixes
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 attended a memorial service at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Poughkeepsie. Cale read a poem by Dylan Thomas: And Death Shall Have No Dominion and remembered 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."

Producing the Happy Mondays

Produces Loads (& Loads More), a single collection by English indie dance band Happy Mondays.

N'Oublie Pas Que Tu Vas Mourir

Releases the 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' Half Past France

Sally Timms covers Half Past France on her To the Land of Milk & Honey album.

Ivan Kral

Writes the music of and plays piano on Perfect Moon, a track of his Nostalgia album. Note: this is sung by Patti Smith who also wrote the lyrics.

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).

Brian Wilson

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

Fausto Rossi

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

Brian Wilson

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

Visit to the Andy Warhol Museum

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

© 1999- Hans Werksman