I don't know if this is really a western, but Danna's Ride With the Devil is also pretty darned good.

It's so richly melodic!

I also love Morricone's ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST and Morross' THE BIG COUNTRY.

THE COWBOYS
TOMBSTONE
SILVERADO
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
RETURN OF THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
FAR AND AWAY (Oklahoma sequences)
DANCES WITH WOLVES
WYATT EARP

AN ENNIO MORRICONE WESTERN QUINTET (Label DRG) :
This excellent 2 CDS Classic Italian Soundtracks by DRG offer complete original soundtrack of five movies : 1) A Fistful of Dynamite -1971- 2) My Name is Nobody -1973- 3) A Fist Goes West -1980- 4) Blood and Guns -1969- 5) Companeros -1970- It is over 150 minutes of western movie music. The 5 scores in this boxed set are but a striking reminder of Morricone's suberb talent as a film composer. A must have for spaghetti western movie music lover.
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ENNIO MORRICONE : IL MERCENARIO/FACCIA A FACCIA (Label : Vivimusica Ita):
I am a fan of Ennio Morricone since 1970 and I have just discovered this two great original soundtracks. I highly recommend to buy this CD, you won't regret!
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I WESTERN (label RCA):
Here is another excellent compilation by RCA and the track listing is :
IL BUONO, IL BRUTTO, IL CATTIVO (1) Il Buono, Il Brutto, Il Cattivo

LE PISTOLE NON DISCUTONO (2) Lonesome Billy (3) Gli Indiani (4) Le Pistole Non Discutono (5) Il Ritorno Di Ringo

C´ERA UNA VOLTA IL WEST (6) Titoli (7) Addio A Cheyenne (8) Come Una Sentenza

UNA PISTOLA PER RINGO (9) Una Pistola Di Ringo (10) Messico Eroico (11) L´Attesa (12) La Strage (13) Angel Face

7 PISTOLE PER I MACGREGOR (14) Marcia Dei MacGregor (15) Santa Fe´ Express

PER QUALCHE DOLLARO IN PIU´ (16) Occhio Per Occhio

PER UN PUGNO DI DOLLARI (17) Titoli

This compilation is a great buy for people who love Ennio Morricone and Spaghetti Western movie music.
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SPAGHETTI WESTERN (Lable BMG/RCA) :

This CD offer 28 tracks of excellent spaghetti western movie music. It icludes : 6 tracks of 'A GUN FOR RINGO', 1 track of 'AT TIMES LIFE IS VERY HARD,ISN'T THAT FATE?', 2 tracks of 'SEVEN GUNS FOR THE McGREGORS', 1 track of 'GUNFIGHT AND RED SANDS', 5 tracks of 'BULLETS DON'T ARGUE', 1 track of 'SEVEN WOMEN FOR THE McGREGORS', 4 tracks of 'DEATH RIDES A HORSE', 3 tracks of "WE'LL BE BACK, ISN'T THAT FATE?'and 6 tracks of 'THE RETURN OF RINGO' A really must have original motion picture soundtracks CD for the people who love spaghetti western music or for those who want to be initiated with that kind of music.
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WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE (Label CAM CVS 900-020)
12 composers - 16 movies - 20 tracks - 69 minutes of music. Represent the best from the original soundtrakcs of the italian westerns.

Hope that this information can help.

I fairly enjoyed MACKENNA’S GOLD (movie **1/2 score **). I remember it being an eccentric movie, but it appeared to suffer from a lot of post-production butchering. It seemed to me, a number of plot-strands were left dangling….a pity, because the movie had a lot of potential.

One of the most interesting things about this ?Tiomkin?-produced movie, to me, apart from the quirky Jones score, was the collection of ageing big-name stars who appeared in what amounted to cameo roles. The funny thing was, virtually the whole collection from Edward G Robinson to Raymond Massey appeared en masse, and spent several scenes milling about in a huddle. It was these ‘cameo’ appearances that seemed to suffer most form the post-production cuts….if indeed there was extensive cutting. Basically, the collection of stars from yesteryear were portraying the supposedly soft and ill-equipped townspeople from ‘back east’ who were overcome by gold-fever. Unfortunately, the ‘folly of their enterprise’ was poorly put across by the movie, and many of these famous character actors literally disappeared in a cloud of dust.

What the movie seemed to be trying to say was that most of the easterners were out of their depth beyond the frontiers and at the mercy of the Indian savage and the elements, away from the protection of their towns. To further emphasize this point, a couple of these novice gold prospectors were British, one of them portrayed by Anthony Quayle. One of the amusing scenes in the movie had Omar Sharif (here playing the bad guy) attempting to mock Quayle’s clipped English accent, once again trying to make out that the British people are a nation of tea-guzzling old ladies, knitting pullovers, and completely out of their element in the wilderness.

In answer to that, first of all listen to Sharif’s own accent, the words pot, kettle, and black spring to mind. Secondly, think of the mere handful of brave Briton’s who defended Rourke’s Drift against thousands of rampaging Zulu’s, think of the adventurous English colonists in Virginia who were battling the North American Indian over two hundred years before the time in which MACKENNA’S GOLD was set, think of the courageous British in Canada (they have Indians there too don’t they?), think of the tenacious British in Afghanistan, think of the intrepid British battling the fearsome Sudanese…..and so on and on and on. Thirdly, MacKenna (Peck) himself….even he’s got a British name. Lastly, the ‘wild west’ was full of British pioneers, even AFTER the war of independence, at which time most of the ‘American’ people were of British descent anyway.

This misconception of the British people as ‘stay at home little Englanders’ is pure nonsense…..from the harbour steps at Plymouth, Devonshire, England……the English speaking world, as we know it, was born - Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the USA, South Africa and any number of other Commonwealth countries based in English custom, language, institution and tradition. The British WERE the pioneers.

The trouble is, the wild west itself, as portrayed in countless western movies, is a very romantically embellished version of actual history. The part that the ‘soft’ easterner played in the taming of the west is generally played down in favour of the stereotypically laconic westerner complete with fully intact American accent and rugged but good-natured disposition…..and yet armed to the teeth with eastern weaponry, clothing, housing, railways, custom, education and law. The romantic western too often has the appearance of being set in Munchkin-land, somewhere over the rainbow. And, anyone with a European accent is usually portrayed as a comic character….ridiculous…..I mean, who were all of these American pioneers if they weren’t Europeans? Sometimes it is only the fact that the ‘cowboy’ speaks English, and mostly has a British surname that in any way betrays his true identity. That said, I must admit that the western genre has spawned a great number of tremendous movies, amongst many mediocre ones, of course.

I mean, it's such a memorable score, I guess that's why I haven't botthered to get it yet.
One of those I can just hear in my mind whenever I want, I suppose.

quote:

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Originally posted by JJH:
The Wind & the Lion!

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I have to get that one... Still available? More than one release/which is best? Sorry for the silly questions, but I saw the movie for the first time recently, so I haven't been looking for the score yet.