Post Campiello / Post Mason Jennings

You maintain those were your drinking days

Have you ever had one of those nights where you follow Muddy Waters’ “Champagne and Reefer” lyrics too closely and the room starts to spin?

That happened to me while creating this demo for Chartreuse Skirt back in 1998.

I got off work at Campiello, where I was a waiter, around 10:30 p.m., and then went to see a Mason Jennings show¹, and then I went to the rehearsal space that I shared with my bandmates in the Spring Collection at 1 in the morning, and started working on this demo for “Chartreuse Skirt.”

Listen in the player below.

I banged this version out in one go, playing all the instruments, and you can really sense the room starting to spin around the 2:51 mark (which was probably 4:30 in the morning.)

This is not a rebel song.

It’s a party song.

Eventually, The Spring Collection went into Mike Wisti’s Albatross studios and recorded a version of this, though that version has not seen release.

When The Spring Collection disbanded, I decided to start calling myself Faux Jean and formed a new band to help me record some of these song ideas.

This band became the Faux Jean band and we self-released² Chartreuse Skirt as part of the “Kiss Life on the Lips” LP in 2001.

The Susstones label helped us reissue that LP in 2002 as Nature, going so far as to hire über-hip publicists Team Clermont³ to get the word out.

The higher-ups at Campiello liked the song so much, that they put a drink on the menu called the “Chartreuse Skirt,” which was part gin and part Chartreuse.⁴

I was flying high on Chartreuse.

My kids are demanding breakfast now and so I must cut this epistle short, but verily, I remain your humble servant,

OX&C,

FAUX JEAN

Here are the lyrics:

I think of you in your Chartreuse Skirt yeah
I think of you and the moves you pulled on me
I think of all the boys that you hurt
I think of all the boys you made feel good

You maintain those were your drinking days so
to justify your shaggy ways so
You did to do
You lived to do it
Would you like a bite of my fruit?

So long to the chartreuse skirt

I think of you and your Capri slacks oh
I think about the platinum purse oh
They're growing threadbare from the wear and tear
They're growing threadbare underwear oh yeah

So long

I think of you in your Chartreuse Skirt yeah

1. I’m guessing it was at the 400 Bar, but it could have been the Uptown…

2. Under the auspices of The New Fidelity Records, essentially a private press, or “vanity” label.

3. If you want to make it as an indie, hiring these guys is a good first step.

Below is a version of the song with a longer intro and mic adjustment sounds etc.

4. Did you know that the color “Chartreuse” is named after the Liqueur made by monks in France at the Chartreuse monastery?

Yeah, neither did I when I wrote this song.