The last track of “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia” just stopped playing in my iTunes playlist. It made something in my subconscious tingle, so I cued up the track and listened to it again.
It almost sounds like Clint Eastwood may have had this Jerry Fielding tune rolling around in his head when he came up with “Claudia’s Theme” for “Unforgiven”. Both are romantic, wistful guitar pieces in films about fallen men bent on bloody vengeance. Beyond that, the echoes are faint because “Claudia’s Theme” is a fairly brief and conventional melody but “Jerry and Camille” is long and meandering.
Probably just a coincidence, but a fun one given Clint and Jerry’s collaborative history. I’d like to think Clint was making an unconscious homage to his late friend.
I'm fairly sure that Lennie Niehaus, who wrote the score, had a hand in Eastwood's "Claudia's Theme" too. As you probably know, Niehaus did a lot of orchestrating for Fielding, and you can hear the Fielding influence in such things as the snare drum in PALE RIDER etc.
I've just checked, and Niehaus also worked as orchestrator on most of the "Kyle/Clint Eastwood-scored" films up until GRAN TORINO. He's also credited as doing the orchestrations for BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCÍA.
