Now Playing XLI

I far prefer RAMBO II but you did indeed nail it in your analysis of FIRST BLOOD Pawel, I think it's a superb score but the fun factor in Part II is more my cuppa.

I don't think any of JG's Rambo scores would break my top 10 JG scores but that's just an example of just how high the quality of his output was.

I like the score as a whole, but mostly for the "It's a Long Road" theme. At one level, it obviously denotes Rambo's solitude and melancholy. But on the other hand, it's also a brilliant portrayal of autumn-covered, drizzly forests and mountainscapes like few others have managed before or since -- perhaps with the exception of Badalamenti's TWIN PEAKS. There's just SOMETHING about it that makes it one of my absolute favourite JG themes.

I need to give First Blood another listen (I don't even own the score, I know shoot me now !!!), but Rambo III is the one where not a single minute is wasted and as Pawel says it, it is also one of my favourite Goldsmiths purely as a listening experience.

I had a good long listen to CUTTHROAT ISLAND 2-disc release, and while I had a ball with Debney at his most fanfaristic and swashbuckling and fun, as I always do, I will not get this one and hold on to my nu.millennia release as it really has all the greatest moments and the downtime between all the awesomeness is reduced to a strict minimum. I'm so used to the fantastic one disc presentation, I'm now convinced the longer release is not the better listening experience.

Who agrees with me?

It's rare that I prefer listening to the complete score over its album presentation, but what a complete release does is allow you to make your perfect album. The 2 disc CutThroat Island has a few cues I'm glad I got to hear, particularly the 17 minute battle music. Admittedly not all scores are worth the effort, but sometimes an album will be missing some truly great cues only available in the complete version.

Avatar is a particularly good example. Although the idea of listening to 3 or 5 discs of alternate versions and various uninteresting cues is not something I relish, I'm glad it was 'released' since it allowed me to make a much better album than the official one. But it depends on how good the score is and how familiar you are with it. In most cases, it's better to trust the people who make the albums in the first place. Complete releases of every score would be a disaster (unless they also came with an album presentation, in which case that would be a great thing).

THE LEGEND OF ZORRO - JAMES HORNER

It doesn't beat the original in the fun department, not by a longshot.

But my god, the end of the album is bloody awesome. This is the kind of Horner I don't mind hearing more often.

The Train is an action masterpiece. Even with the John Williams rip-offs in the end of it.

IMO Mask had the action, adventure and emotion extremely well balanced, making for a better listen than Legend. I still like Legend a lot for providing us more of the same, it's just not as memorable and exciting, not all of it.

Must be a generation thing... give me any of his older classics over this.

I could see this coming from a mile away.

Fuck you!

Why do I ALWAYS get that from the WRONG sex?

LOL!

By the way, I adore AVATAR and think it's one of -- if not THE best -- score Horner ever did. But I wouldn't want an expansion if you threw it at me. In fact, the existing soundtrack could have done with some trimming, esp. in the heavy action cues.