Is the last track of audio commentary a recent interview?
I can't find a date for it LC, but I'm assuming it must be "quite" recent, based on the fact that it's conducted (by telephone) by the CD's producer Stephan Eike, as was the case with Caldera's THE BABY. You'll probably know more about this than me, but Eike had received the tapes from David Fuller in "the mid 2010s" but didn't start looking into the rights issues until "years later". Now, maybe I need to sing "One Potato, Two Potato" with an abacus at hand, but if "the mid 2010s" is about 2015 say, then "years later" sounds like it must have been pretty recently.
So I'm guessing that although in the liner notes it states that Fried uses the "meter and melody" of the old nursery rhyme, it's actually Fried's melody after all. As regards Alan Arkin's involvement? Nothing to add from my last paragraph from the original post?
Apologies - I was busy with STUFF. Mainly with new releases. You want new releases, don't ya?
Regarding the melody: it's probably an issue of definition but "Fried's" theme to me very much plays as a musical variation on the nursery rhyme. I wouldn't - and didn't - call it a straight out new melody although it differs from the original.
Regarding Alan Arkin: I do not recall hearing the song in the film. Annoyingly, I forgot to ask Mr. Fried about it and to follow-up. It's been a few years since I have seen the film, admittedly.
