Richard Dangel, seminal guitarist, inspired luminaries

His music was publicly admired the world over, by such giants as George Harrison, Jimi Hendrix and B.B. King. But partly by his own design, Richard Dangel himself never became a household name.

Still, the original guitarist of the 1950s Northwest rock band the Wailers left a stamp on American rock music deeper than anyone can measure, his band mates and music historians said yesterday. It was a legacy he was only beginning to appreciate.

Mr. Dangel, whose often-copied 1961 arrangement of a simple tune called "Louie Louie" became an undying modern classic and nearly became the state song, was found dead of heart failure Tuesday in his North Seattle home, two days after he played publicly for the last time to celebrate his 60th birthday.

"It's a sad day for Northwest rock," said Peter Blecha, a local music historian, former senior curator at the Experience Music Project and Dangel's friend.

"History is going to remember him for that 'Louie Louie' guitar solo. And ... he was a singular influence on a generation of Northwest and national rock musicians."

Born in Texas in 1942 to a career Air Force man, Mr. Dangel moved with his family to Tacoma and helped form the Wailers in 1958 while he and the other band members were attending Stadium High School.

Mr. Dangel co-wrote the band's first hit, an instrumental called "Tall Cool One," which rocketed the teenagers to stardom. The band, the first Northwest act to score a Top 10 rock hit, toured the country in 1959 and appeared on "American Bandstand."

In the process, they introduced the nation to the Northwest sound, as people called it even back then, Blecha said. It was raw, unpolished — and catchy.

In 1961, lead singer Robin Roberts found an obscure B-side recording of a calypso-style song by an R&B singer named Richard Berry. Mr. Dangel rearranged the song to a rock beat, added a simple three-chord riff and a guitar solo, and Roberts rocked up the lyrics.

"Louie Louie" became an instant regional smash, the song every aspiring Northwest band had to learn to play — or perish.

The song was re-recorded and made into a national hit by the Kingsmen, a Portland band, and later by Portland's Paul Revere and the Raiders, among others.

"That solo (Mr. Dangel) did was copied by everybody," said Buck Ormsby, the Wailers' bassist and Dangel's lifelong friend. "Tons of musicians and wannabe musicians actually used to come and watch Rich play, because he was so good, and so innovative."

But mega-fame would elude the Wailers, by their own choice. "It wasn't like it was going to be a long-term thing, because everybody wanted to finish high school," Ormsby said.

Still, the band remained hugely popular in the Northwest, and had its pick of well-paying gigs. One of the band's regular bookings was at a ballroom in Midway called the Spanish Castle, and a young Jimi Hendrix made pilgrimages there to see Mr. Dangel play, Blecha said.

Mr. Dangel left the Wailers in 1963. He played with several other Northwest bands, but he found rock music too simple. His real love was jazz guitar, his friends and family said. And he became highly admired in that genre as well.

"The whole rock 'n' roll thing, he thought it was funny, almost," said Mr. Dangel's son Corey, of Redmond. "He wanted to play jazz and he wanted people to respect him as a serious musician, and not just some guy who could lay down three chords. I don't think it was until recently that he became comfortable with his legacy."

In the mid-1980s, the local TV show "Almost Live" launched a tongue-in-cheek campaign to have "Louie Louie" named the state song. It almost succeeded.

"I think he was charmed by the fact that it was the song that wouldn't go away," Blecha said.

Nine years ago, Mr. Dangel began recovering from a long-term battle with drug addiction, his son said. Most recently, Mr. Dangel was winning acclaim with his jazz trio, the Butter Bean band. The group played Sunday in Tacoma to mark Mr. Dangel's birthday.

Whether he would have liked it or not, his name will always be connected with the three chords that helped shape a generation.

"He was not only an innovator and an inventor, but he inspired a lot of people," Ormsby said. "We all just feel lucky that he was our friend and our band member. It's a loss to everybody."

In addition to his son, Mr. Dangel is survived by a daughter, Angela Dangel of Federal Way; his mother, Ruth Scarborough of Vancouver, Wash.; sisters Linda Drever of Sacramento, Calif., and Nancy Miller of Las Vegas; and two grandchildren.

A memorial service has yet to be set.