One evening while surfing the web, I went to a link I bookmarked quite some time ago called “The 365 Days Project” to see if it was still active. It’s an MP3 archive site full of very strange, mostly out-of-print music & oddball recordings. One file archived per day for a year, hence the 365 Day Project moniker.

Its home page stated that all archived MP3s would be going off-line after January 1st, 2004 (the end of the project). That date is coming soon.

I quickly scanned my brain to think of an obscure song that might be on the list, which I would have no chance of ever hearing once this resource disappeared. What song bubbled up from the depths of my memory? “Chicken Fat”; an inspiring little number my brother, cousins Annie & Susie, & I used to listen to on a portable turntable* up at my Uncle George & Aunt Gloria’s Tahoe cabin. I remember envisioning our bodies covered with lumps of chicken fat if we didn’t exercise along with this rather confusing, exhausting & overly-enthusiastic routine (upon re-listening, I guess us girls only had to participate from the sit-ups, on).

Our grandmother used to make a chicken & flour dumpling soup called “Klyotsky”. Those flour & egg lumps very closely resembled the afore-mentioned lumps of chicken fat. To this day, if I see certain yellowish Klyotsky-shaped globs of chicken fat, the refrain “go you chicken fat, go away; go you chicken fat, go!” still bounces through my head.

So...what were the chances of the song being there? On a whim I searched “Chicken Fat”. Geeze, was I ever surprised! A song just crazy enough to be included! With the music about to go off-line, Robert Preston’s “Chicken Fat” has a new home at ClubCourtyard.com. Now, MARCH that fat away! ;-)

Here’s a link to the project page explaining how this gem made it into their archive. (scroll down to #276 Oct. 3)