As a loyal fan of yours for over a decade, I have followed your many flights of whimsy, collected your numerous albums, attended a number of your shows, and hunted long for your rarities. I am pleased that you have been so open in sharing your demos and live recordings with an eternally grateful body of fans. But, as is the case with many other fans, one particular rare piece of work has long intrigued me ever since I read of its existence online several years ago.
This elusive video.
That, of course, is the legendary "Rabid Child" video from 1985, which you so kindly allowed us to glimpse in A.J. Schnack's documentary Gigantic. However, I know that I am not alone among your fan community in feeling somewhat taunted by that brief clip, especially given your absolute refusal to let the entire video be seen as a special feature on the Gigantic DVD. Thus, the question remains... what could be so bad about the other 1:20 of that video?
As you may be aware, a young "Weird Al" Yankovic had his own equivalent to the "Rabid Child" video - a very amateur music video for "My Bologna", obviously shot on a camcorder by a friend of his. Despite lacking any production values and consisting merely of Al lipsynching his demo in front of a blank backdrop, Al released this simple but still entertaining bit of footage as an Easter Egg on his 2003 video compilation. It would not be unreasonable to think, since both you and Al seem to share many of the same fans, that the "Rabid Child" video would be met with the level of appreciation and artistic respect that we showed to Al's homemade "My Bologna" clip. If you are embarrassed about the video, as fans have told me in the past, there is no certainly reason to be - we accepted a 19-year-old lip-synching with an accordion, so we will also heartily accept and appreciate a video supposedly consisting of Mr. Flansburgh leaning on a door jamb!
So I ask you, Mr. Flansburgh and Mr. Linnell, to please consider finally releasing the video that fans have wanted so desperately to see over the past 24 years. No matter what the as-yet-unseen portions contain, you can be assured that the video will be roundly appreciated and enjoyed in a positive manner by the whole of your fan base.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Steven Worek
