Curt Boettcher had many strengths as a musician and songwriter, but perhaps his greatest was his voice, which not only soared to the heavens but contained a childlike innocence not unlike that of Peter Pan. However, while his music was certainly pretty, whimsical and melodic, it was often tinged with enough psychedelic flourishes to conjure the image that perhaps our Peter was ingesting some funny, mind altering substances (which indeed Boettcher was at the time). Upon listening to The Ballroom CD, one can hear the germination of a fruitful period for Boettcher, and his bandmates Sandy Salisbury, Michelle O'Malley, and Jim Bell were able assistants, contributing tight musicianship, beautiful Association/Cowsills like harmonies, and sophisticated songwriting in the case of Salisbury. The album (actually, the tapes of 11 of the original 13 songs could be found) could almost serve as a soundtrack to a fairytale, albeit a slightly askew one, and Boettcher's Peter Pan persona is easily communicated on tracks like the delightful "Spinning, Spinning, Spinning," "Love's Fatal Way", and the Salisbury penned "Magic Time". The band could emerge from that mold as well, as the American Indian flavored "You Turn Me Around," (co-written by "Along Comes Mary" writer Tandyn Almer-Boettcher had produced the first Association album) the slow, intense, and mystical "It's A Sad World," the goofy, Vaudevillian, pot induced "Crazy Dreams," and the pop/psych workout of the traditional R&B "Baby Please Don't Go" would attest. The Ballroom album also has nascent renderings of "Would You Like To Go" and "Musty Dusty", which would appear in more ornate versions on Sagittarius' Present Tense and The Millennium's Begin albums, respectively. The Ballroom versions are slightly slower and sparer, and in that form perhaps more cogently illustrates the beauty of these songs. Although The Ballroom is considered to be a Boettcher-led project, perhaps the highlight of the album is the Salisbury penned "I'll Grow Stronger," which contains an amazing melody line, complimentary whispery lead vocals and exquisite harmonies. Truly an amazing aural experience!

The next 8 tracks on the CD are outtakes and demos from The Ballroom and The Millennium, many of which emerged on either the aforementioned Sagittarius or Millennium albums. These are all excellent, especially "Another Time", which is more acoustic based than the released version but greatly emphasizes the delicate, complex melody lines, and "I'm Not Living Here", which in this version is carried by a prominent, slightly distorted bass line (these outtakes contain some different lyrics than those versions which appeared on "Present Tense"). Some songs that had not previously seen the light of day in any form are the uptempo, slightly loungy "If You Only Knew," the slow, Indian tinged "Believe You", which could have easily fit on the Monkees' Head soundtrack, and the pretty, early Monkees-ish "Sunshine Today". The final three songs on the disc are the gypsy-ish "Milk And Honey", by a pre-Ballroom Boettcher project called Summer's Children, "All Really Have Is A Memory", a soft, romantic Salisbury solo track (credited to "Sandy" on the 45) that out Left Bankes the Left Banke in the refrain, and a delightful version of Nilsson's "Best Friend" by the Salisbury led group Puppet.

The packaging of Preparing For The Millennium is stellar as well, with cool photos, vintage press clippings, and the usual excellent liner notes and song annotations by the venerable Dawn Eden, which include insights from various members of The Ballroom and The Millennium. All in all, Preparing For The Millennium is a collection that should be considered the Holy Grail of soft pop.
David Bash

The history of rock is littered with 'great lost albums' - and here is one of the most thoroughly lost of all. Before the psych-superpop leap in the dark of Sagittarius and The Millennium, there was The Ballroom. With the No.1 success of The Association under his belt, production wunderkind Curt Boettcher was persuaded by mentor Steve Clarke and cronies Gary Usher and Brian Wilson that his time as an artist had come. Recruiting Sandy Salisbury, Lee Mallory and Michelle O'Malley (later in Sagittarius and Millennium) and Jim Bell (of country rock pioneers The Poor) an LP was recorded (in gaps between Tommy Roe sessions), a showcase was played, press was ecstatic and a promo single was issued by Warners. Then nothing. The Ballroom were expanded and co-opted into Sagittarius and minus Bell and O'Malley, emerged as the legendary Millennium; their original incarnation was forgotten, the LP purchased by the new label Columbia and seemingly lost in limbo. Now, however, what was once lost is found - all but two songs. To make up for this we have added 11 bonus tracks, out-takes and demos taking us from pre-Ballroom to post-Millennium. an extraordinary collection ranging from Mama And Papas-esque harmony pop to music concrete, this CD is a vital missing link in the growing collectors market of soft rock/sunshine pop. The bonus tracks provide an insight into the art of Curt Boettcher, whose influence on artists as disparate as the High Llamas, Teenage Fanclub and Saint Etienne is well known. From Millennium member Keith Olsen's multi-platinum Fleetwood Mac albums to Future Pilots' trancey adaptation of Millennium's "Prelude", Boettcher's restless spirit lives on.

"A stunning mix of psych-pop, folk rock and pure joyous harmony, as filtered through the unique imagination of Curt Boettcher" - Record Collector.

The mention of Curt Boettcher's name is likely to elicit blank stares from all but the most ardent followers of 60s pop, but to cognoscenti he is considered an icon of such proportions that it's safe to say that Boettcher has the highest ratio of reverence to records sold in pop music history. The plaudits heaped upon him come with good reason; this is a man whose work reportedly caused Brian Wilson to turn white with envy. Sundazed Records, in their usual display of good taste, has reissued this album, Present Tense, which many (including myself) consider to be the finest work with which Boettcher was ever involved, and those of you who already have the Japanese CD reissue of this album should be aware that this Sundazed issue contains 9 bonus tracks which are mostly otherwise unavailable.

Boettcher had been a veteran of pop music before he had put together Sagittarius; he had been a member of the folk band The Goldebriars, who had released two albums on Epic Records in the early 60s. The limitations of the genre only allowed a sliver of the innovation Boettcher would subsequently display to shine through with the Goldebriars, but when he began work with the band Ballroom a few years later, those present were able to witness his greatness as both a producer and songwriter. His arrangements and chord structures were tantalizingly unique and way ahead of their time, and his angelic, choirboy voice was not unlike that of Peter Pan not quite grown up. During the recording of the Ballroom album (never released), Boettcher formed an alliance with Gary Usher, who was producing the Byrds Younger Than Yesterday album in a neighboring studio. Usher recognized the greatness extant in Boettcher, and with Usher at the producer's helm, the two went to work on Present Tense.

The album is a combination of some original Ballroom tracks, some re-recorded Ballroom tracks, newly written tunes, and a couple of covers. Although Sagittarius was designed to in effect be a pseudonym for a Boettcher solo album (it was his astrological sign), during the making of Present Tense he formed The Millennium, which was a band containing Boettcher and several session musicians including Keith Olsen (who would go on to produce several multi-platinum albums), Lee Mallory (for whom Boettcher had previously produced some sides), Joey Stec, Sandy Salisbury, and Michael Fennelly (who would later form Crabby Appleton, whose wonderful single "Go Back" reached the Top 40 in the summer of 1970), Doug Rhodes, and Ron Edgar. These guys, along with another more well known individual (more on that later) were utilized as vocalists and instrumentalists on Present Tense, and their presence helped flesh out the work into a stunning collage of bright, wonderful sounds.

Boettcher's Peter Pan persona was well represented on several of the tracks on Present Tense. Songs like "Another Time", "Song To The Magic Frog (Will You Ever Know)", "The Keeper Of The Games, "Musty Dusty", and "Would You Like To Go" are all manifestations of Boettcher's wide eyed wonderment, the harpsichord and string laden arrangments and the elegant melodies offering the perfect complement to Boettcher's soaring vocals. All of these songs would have fit perfectly as a soundtrack to any fairy tale, and "Musty Dusty" could serve as a beautiful lullaby. There was, however, another side to Boettcher, a foreboding acid induced element that appeared on "The Truth Is Not Real", a track co-written with Usher that was "intended to reach listeners higher selves", and its phased lead vocals and somewhat darker melodies definitely did the trick.

There isn't one track on Present Tense which is anything less than wonderful. "Hotel Indiscreet", co-written by Michael Z. Gordon and James Griffin, is a gleeful description of a place where people are doing what they oughtn't, and its emblematic refrain helps underscore that point. "I'm Not Living Here" is easily the nastiest song on the album (well, as nasty as someone with the makeup of Boettcher could get) and displays some rather stinging guitar work. "Glass", originally done by the Sandpipers of "Guantanamera" fame, has a delightfully murky ambience, almost sounding like it's emanating from the inside of a bottomless pit, and "You Know I've Found A Way" is perhaps the best song on the album, and a most wonderfully romantic way to say "I Love You"; its baroque arrangements and soft, almost whispered lead vocal will sweep across your mind, embedding itself there forever. The most talked about song on Present Tense is undoubtedly "My World Fell Down" which was originally done by the U.K. band The Ivy League. Sagittarius' version is fairly faithful to the original, although it's embellished with a bit of period psychedelia, but it is not for these things that it became the subject of conversation. The lead vocalist on "My World Fell Down" is none other than the schlockmeister himself Glen Campbell (the aforementioned "well known individual"), and he showed himself to be up to the task of meeting the vocal standards of the rest of the album. Of course, having people like Bruce Johnston and Terry Melcher singing background didn't hurt!!

Of the 9 bonus tracks, 7 are previously unreleased and two are mono single versions of songs from the album, those being "Hotel Indiscreet" and "My World Fell Down". The unreleased tracks come from various phases of Sagittarius' existence. "Artificial Light (Of All The Living Lies)" opens with a bassline similar to that of "You Know I've Found A Way", and segues into a Jimmy Webb like melody, although he didn't write the song (no vocal credit is given, but it sounds like it could be Lee Mallory singing lead). The next track "Get The Message" (which also was recorded by Brian Hyland and Michael J. James and written by Gordon and Griffin, who also wrote "Hotel Indiscreet") is a sprightly number spiked by some tight lead/harmony vocals (the lead was probably supplied by Gordon) and some catchy deep keyboard sounds. Then there's "Mass #586" which features Firesign Theater member Peter Bergman on lead sermon (!), a delivery which slowly but surely becomes obscured by some wonderfully arranged violin and Usher vocals. "Love's Fatal Way", the earliest of the bonus tracks, was originally intended for the Ballroom album but is heard publicly for the first time here. It's a pleasant enough vocal exercise, unremarkable save for some phasing not generally heard in 1966. The single version of "My World Fell Down" is different from the version on the album in that it contains some abrupt edits and a very psychedelicized bridge, not unlike that of the bridge on the single version of "Too Much Talk" by Paul Revere and The Raiders. The single version of "Hotel Indiscreet" appears to be a might faster than its album counterpart (though that may have come from speed variations sometimes inherent in re-mastering), but its most salient aspect is the addition of a hilarious spoken word overlay by The Firesign Theater). The next track, "Lonely Girl" features the gorgeous lead vocals of Sandy Salisbury; it's an absolutely wonderful uptempo track filled with harmonies. There are a sprinkling of Salisbury singles around, but they are very difficult to find. However, if you're able to score the bootleg CD of the Timeless album by Eternity's Children (contemporaries of Sagittarius that are the darlings of Boettcher fans everywhere-they had two albums on Tower Records that are really worth picking up), you can hear several Salisbury tracks that have been appended as bonuses. After "Lonely Girl" comes a demo version of "The Keeper Of The Games" which is, as most demos are wont to be, more stripped down, containing a single tracked Boettcher vocal. The final bonus track, "Sister Marie" is essentially the instrumental track of a song that Chad and Jeremy had recorded on their Painted Dayglow Smile album, and is quite pretty.

Soon after the release of Present Tense, Columbia released the Begin album by The Millennium. Begin was much more of a group effort than Present Tense, as evidenced by a more even distribution of songwriting. The album is a bit heavier than Present Tense, the songs taking on a more psychedelic bent, though the melodies and vocal arrangements are as wonderful as ever. Note: Some sources report that Boettcher presented the entire contents of Present Tense and Begin to Columbia with the intention of releasing it as a double album by Sagittarius, but Columbia balked at the idea of releasing such an ambitious project by an unknown entity, so a compromise was reached and each album was released almost simultaneously under different band names. This may or may not be true... In 1969, Los Angeles label Together Records released a second Sagittarius album, called The Blue Marble. This mostly Usher penned album is a worthwhile addition to your collection, but is not at the quality level of Present Tense or Begin, and because of the limited quantity released, is a very hard to come by collectable (Hey Sundazed, how about a reissue?). Boettcher released a pretty good solo album, There's An Innocent Face, on Elektra Records in 1973 (executive producer Gary Usher), and released several singles under the names California Music and California. He then became a session vocalist on some Beach Boys albums in the late 70s (during this time he changed the spelling of his name to "Becher" and other such things), and passed away in 1987. He is greatly missed.

Present Tense is a beautiful album, perhaps the best of the genre known as "soft pop", and Curt Boettcher's legacy has been left to those of us who weren't fortunate enough to be there when it was all happening. Pick up the Sundazed reissue of Present Tense; you may not turn white as Brian Wilson did when he first heard Boettcher's work, but you'll be very happy that you turned in some of your green to get it.
David Bash

>>> issued by Sundazed

For producer-wunderkind Gary Usher, Sagittarius was the outcome of months holed up in the studio with like-minded friends: Curt Boettcher, Bruce Johnston, Glen Campbell, the Firesign Theatre and others. The hit single, "My World Fell Down", debuted in 1967. "Present Tense" - shimmering, dense, and relentlessly melodic - quite simply relocated the goals of contemporary pop songwriting and arranging. Mastered in the best Sundazed tradition, "Present Tense" chronicles the epitome of California sunshine rock and the Summer Of Love - it's the sound of the Mamas and Papas, the Beach Boys and Claude Debussy having an Easter egg hunt on Phil Spector's lawn. 20 tracks, including rare single versions and 7 previously unissued tracks.

TRACKS: Another Time / Song To The Magic Frog (Will You Ever Know) / You Know I've Found A Way / The Keeper Of The Games / Glass / Would You Like To Go / My World Fell Down / Hotel Indiscreet / I'm Not Living Here / Musty Dusty / The Truth Is Not Real / Artificial Light (All Of The Living Lies) (previously unissued) / Get The Message (previously unissued) / Mass #586 (previously unissued) / Love's Fatal Way (previously unissued mono) / My World Fell Down (single version) / Hotel Indiscreet (single version) / Lonely Girl (previously unissued) / The Keeper Of The Games (previously unissued) / Sister Marie (previously unissued). >>> issued by Sundazed