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Reliving the music dream

Gottschall recorded the album after dropping college and traveling to Europe with a banjo

By Francesca Chambers

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Mark Gottschall had been searching the Internet for years for the album “Beautiful People,” which he helped make in 1972 in Spain. But each time, Gottschall received no relevant results.

In October of 2007, Gottschall, supervisor of the journalism resource center, realized he should have been searching for the album’s title in Spanish: ”Maravillosa Gente.”

Searching for the translation of the name made all the difference. Gottschall found a link that said the album was to be re-released and turned into a CD, and that the production company, Guerssen records, was looking for him.

“It was just fate that made me Google it that day. If I had not, I would never have known about the re-issue. Talk about luck,” Gottschall said.

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Photo by Mindy Ricketts

Mark Gottschall, journalism resource center supervisor

Guerssen records couldn’t find Bill Quick, who was the main artist on the album, so they needed Gottschall to write the liner notes for the CD. After 35 years, Gotschall’s dream of being on a major record was finally coming true.

“I felt sort of vindicated that people would finally get to hear what I could do,” Gottschall said.

In 1971, Gottschall dropped out of college and decided to travel across Europe. Being a guitar player, he knew he would need to learn to play a more unusual instrument to stand out. So he bought a banjo, a banjo beginner’s book and traveled to Spain.

One day, when Gottschall was playing his banjo in a park, a man joined him with a guitar. The man said he would introduce Gottschall to Bill Quick, who was making an album, under one condition – Gottschall had to promise he would not ask Quick if he could be on his album. The man said every artist he knew, including himself, had asked Quick to be on the album and Quick was tired of being asked.

“As soon as we knocked on the door, Bill said in English, ‘Is that a banjo?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Far out man. Do you wanna be on my album?’ which I thought was pretty funny because the other guy told me not to ask if I could be on his album,” Gottschall said.

The record was being recorded at Explosion studio, in Madrid, Spain. Gottschal said Explosion was the biggest recording studio he had ever seen, and would later find out it was one of the best recording studios in Europe at that time.

“From the time I walked into that studio I knew there was magic there,” Gottschall said. “There was magic in Bill’s songs. It was just a magical, magical time.”

Gottschall said halfway through the first song one of the producers told him the harmony he was playing was not what they were looking for and asked him to play a different one. At that time Gottschall still knew only one song from the banjo book.

“I went from thinking I’m going to be on this cool recording, to thinking I’m gonna get fired because this is all I know,” Gottschall said.

Gottschall then excused himself from the room. As he was strumming on his banjo, contemplating his predicament, the producer walked by.

“He said, ‘That’s it. That’s what I want,’ so it made it easy,” Gottschall said.

From that day on, Gottschall and Quick were close friends. On Sundays they would go to the flea market in Madrid and sell the belts Quick made. Afterward, they would return to Quick’s apartment to sing and play music together.

Gottschall said that his and Quick’s voices blended together so well that Quick asked him to sing harmony on the CD with him, play the acoustic guitar on several tracks and add a track of his own to the CD. Gottschall’s track is called “You’re not listening.”

Gottschall was also asked to write lyrics to a track Quick had written about the flea market. Quick wanted to call it “Beautiful People.” Gottschall said originally the title song was supposed to be “Take me Away,” but that “Beautiful People” replaced it.

Gottschall said when he began working on the album it was similar to Santana’s pop music. However, Gottschall said the producer thought he and Quick sounded like Simon and Garfunkel, so many of the tracks on the album morphed into psychedelic folk songs.

Gottschall said he and Quick were even interviewed on one of Madrid’s most famous FM stations, where they performed two songs live.

Because Quick’s name was on the album deal, Gottschall did not receive credit for writing the songs. However, Alain Milhaud, one of the producers, offered he and Quick a record deal when the album was finished.

“I turned down the deal and I’ve been kicking myself every since,” Gottschall said.

Gottschall said he turned down the offer because he missed his girlfriend, Jayne, who was still living in Austin. He said at the time he thought that if he was a good enough musician to receive a record deal in Europe, that he could get one in the U.S. as well.

Gottschall has tried to contact Milhaud several times since then, with no success. He said Milhaud was one of the most prominent European producers at the time. Gotschall has not heard from Quick either since 1997. Gottschall said he was the last known person to have heard from Quick.

Kelly Clark, an Overland Park senior who works in the resource center, said when she found out about Gottschall’s newly acquired fame, she told him he should go on tour. Clark said that after listening to the CD she was surprised at how current the music sounded.

“It’s something I think won’t ever go out of style,” Clark said.

Though Gottschall’s music career never skyrocketed like he had hoped, his personal life turned out well. Gottschall eventually married Jayne.

Jayne said Gottschall’s story did not surprise her because he had always lived a colorful life. She said she was happy he returned because she knew enough about the music business to know that nothing is certain, no matter how good Milhaud may have made the deal sound.

Jayne said that Quick visited her and Mark in Austin several times, and that he was very nice and always brought her gifts. One time Quick brought her a beautiful shawl from Spain, and another time he brought her earrings he had made himself.

Jayne said she was very interested to see if the re-release would draw Quick out of hiding.

“He was off beat enough that I’m not surprised that nobody really knows where he is now,” she said. “I hope he’s okay, because we’re all getting older.”

Gottschall’ played as a professional musician in Austin for 25 years before moving to Lawrence. Occasionally Gottschall performs downtown. He has also made a CD of his own.

Gotschall’s three children, Gino, Mike and Mandi are all musically inclined as well. Gino owns a music store in Austin and Mike has a music MySpace page. Mandi, who plays the guitar, said she hoped to make a CD with her father in the future.

— Edited by Patrick De Oliveira

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