I'm in the camp that goes bananas for the sweeping, more thematically-developed Rambo III score. "Questions" is an absolute treasure and the final, definitive statement of the First Blood theme that swells out of "I'll Stay" and segues into the end credit music is a powerful moment that's really tough to beat... as if Jerry was saying his own moving farewell to the trilogy. Which, upon reflection, I guess he was.
A heads up. The original recording sounded fine for what it was, coming from way back in 1988, but was a little on the harsh side. All previous releases were prepared from those elements. Our all-new presentation comes from the first generation multi-tracks mixed down from the Otari 32-track digital session masters by Mike Ross-Trevor and offers an ever-so-slightly warmer quality. There is also a shade more detail in these masters as well... though don't look for dramatic differences. Everything still originates with the Otari digital masters.
Though pretty insignificant in the bigger scheme of things, there was one previously unreleased cue on these elements called "Insane" that is very short and is scored for keyboards with sampled strings in a style similar to "Dust". It's very short and will matter only to those fanatics who want "every bloody note" as Jerry would say. Fanatics like myself. There was also an alternate of the gorgeous "Another Time" but the only difference appears to be a slightly altered timing of the last portion when the trumpet returns to play "The Homecoming" theme. Jerry slightly re-scored the shifting strings in this last section with a miniscule change in his tempo. The differences from the version used on previous albums is almost imperceptible. We'll include that familiar version of course. The necessity for the alternate is up for debate.
But, then again, for fanatics...
The conundrum is that our previous album ran 76:43, which means there is room to add "Insane", but not the alternate of "Another Time", if we're going to keep this as a single disc. What's more, the complete percussion sequence in "Preparations" for Rambo's stick fight (called "The Joust" in Jerry's manuscripts) feels awfully long (though the film required the length) and in fact was edited down on the initial Scotti Bros. album precisely for that reason. While I would always keep the complete version on our CD, in an ideal world I'd also include the edited assembly that Jerry did for Scotti Bros. for a slightly more rewarding listening experience.
It has taken us almost 30 years to finally gather up all three of these incredible scores under one roof. Whether these few additions warrant a 2-CD set that would double our manufacturing costs, and increase the retail price, is maybe a decision someone as fanatical about the Rambo trilogy music as I am shouldn't be allowed to make.
But, as Reverend Hale says in Hawaii in response to Jerusha's query about some problem or another: "I will sleep on the matter".
--Doug
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), but I'm willing to give this one another chance! Thanks for the heads-up, Roger! I'll wait until the "face-lift"... just don't use too much (Pardon the pun!) "BOW-tox"! 
