Dear TMBG.... END THE MADNESS. FREE THE RABID CHILD.

You all have likely noticed that I've changed my name from TheLazenby to The Rabid Child.  Allow me to explain why.

In 1985, They Might Be Giants filmed their first-ever music video to accompany "Rabid Child," a track from their widely-circulated demo tape that would shortly after appear on their proper debut album.  When the Johns felt that it didn't meet their standards, the video was shelved and never once shown to the public.  Outside of a mention in the 'Early Years' FAQ on TMBG.org (which claimed it merely showed Flansburgh clinging to a door jamb while staring dreamily into the camera), it was more or less unknown by their fan-base.

Then, in 2002, the documentary film 'Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns' was released.  Most surprisingly, the film included a very brief clip of the "Rabid Child" video which most certainly *didn't* show Flans clinging to a door jamb, and seemed to be a fairly well-done and quite surreal production.  Unfortunately, this brief clip is all the Johns would allow - director A.J. Schnack wanted to include the entire video as a DVD feature, and was refused without question.  Nevertheless, this clip left fans hungry for more.

In 2004, hoping that its appearance on the Internet would inspire TMBG to release their most notorious and mysterious music video in full, a high school classmate and I spent a wealth of time in our filmmaking class building a full length music video for "Rabid Child" out of the fragment of footage seen in 'Gigantic.'

Unfortunately, a decade later, this is STILL the only version of "Rabid Child" available for public viewing... the same short clip, looped and manipulated to pad out the minute-and-a-half song.  (The version currently on YouTube has been touched up compared to our original version - I tweaked the speed of the footage in spots to make Flans mouth the words a little more accurately, and added a 'Direct From Brooklyn' style title card.)


When faking the video failed to sway Messrs. Flansburgh and Linnell into revealing the rest of the genuine article, I started a petition that, sadly, faded into obscurity - but not after receiving more than 30 signatures from like-minded fans.
http://www.petitiononline.com/RbdChild/petition.html

In 2009, on this very blog, I wrote a letter to TMBG, respectfully telling them of the wishes of their fan base to see this video once and for all.  Of course, this post didn't grab the attention of anyone in the TMBG camp, and likely did not bat an eyebrow on either of the Johns.
http://steveworek.blogspot.com/2009/01/free-rabid-child-open-letter-to-tmbg.html

So, nearly a decade after my friend and I created our reconstruction, and almost thirty years since the video was filmed and hidden away, we remain devoted to our cause - though my determination is considerably stronger than his.

It consumes me - last night I had a dream (from my recollection, the third I've had about this video) where TMBG offered to release the video if fans gave them a collective $5,000.  Hell, if that were the case, I'd start a Kickstarter before you could blink.

From this day forward, I have but two goals in life - one, to join a Rocky Horror cast; and two, to feast my eyes upon the missing one minute and twenty seconds of the "Rabid Child" video!

You haven't won yet, Johns....