Is there really no thread for this score, or is the search function acting wonky?
I remember being sure years ago, after the Varese Club began releasing again and so many early efforts were Fox films, that this score would legitimately see the light of day. But so far, nothing.
It's a really wonderful score, a mixture of traditional harmonic ideas and a few more modern touches (some nice electric guitar wailing in there). The main titles get things going with a short but haunting refrain for acoustic guitar, which flows into Silvestri's nimble main theme. He uses it to great effect throughout, as a rollicking travel companion, comment on friendship, and eventually elegy. Some of it is surprisingly moving. There are even a few nice fluorishes of action strewn about, one of which somehow made its way, almost despite itself, onto the famous Bon Jovi album.
Anyway, it's a fantastic score and hopefully gets some kind of commercial release in the future.
Now yer talkin! I LOVE this score. One of my favorite Silvestris. Would be thrilled to get an official release. The sections with the wordless chorus are so restrained but powerful.
Dynamite score. It treads the line between a contemporary (1990) feel and traditional Western music perfectly. Silvestri brought a lot of energy and emotion to that film - the music for Lou Diamond Phillips' demise is a personal favorite.
I liked these films as a kid, but I can't remember much of them now. Nor the scores, I'm afraid. But I like the Silvestri of the time, so I'll probably enjoy this too.
I simply adore this score by Silvestri. The opening score sequence is incredible, and a lot of the western flourishes are extremely rousing, with contemplative pieces to counter the bombast. Also, some great vocal chant work and interesting percussion for the scene when Lou Diamond Phillips and Christian Slater have a knife fight on the Indian burial ground.
Making a "contemporary" score is always a fine line to walk, but Silvestri did it without making a really pop-sounding score. What was there seemed to accentuate the feel of the cowboys, not destroy it.
Speaking of Silvestri... how about The Long Kiss Goodnight. I'd like that one a bit more. Both would be good though.
I would love to have both "The Long Kiss Goodnight" and "Young Guns II" on disc. I think La La Land would be a great label to release these kind of scores.
'No reason to resurrect this thread except to eulogise the score again.
It has such an immediate emotional impact; about three themes that are all first rate, and crafted beautifully.
Apart from the evocative semi-Native American choral thing, the film's main theme is split into two, like a truck with a trailer, either of which can be separated and developed. The theme's first heroic half is suitable for desperado style action scoring, though can be introspective and wistful if it needs to, but the second half of the theme is elegaically and gravely sad and almost mediaeval. And Hispanic style throughout of course.
I have a wee question relating to some diegetic source music ....
Now although this thread is about Silvestri and 'Young Guns II', I'm wondering about this clip from 'Young guns I':
Just what is the tune Billy is whistling at 2:05? It's not related to either score;
I think he's trying to whistle Sean O'Riada's 'Women of Ireland'. made famous by its use by the Chieftains in Kubrick's 'Barry Lyndon':
McCarty/Bonney/Billy was of Scots Irish descent, and that may have been the idea. The event, like all the events in both films, is a true one, Billy having slyly spun his victim's magazine until an empty chamber was primed, just before challenging him.
Is there any story to this, did it appear elsewhere in the film?