I Was a Teenage Angel of Death

Teen Tragedy songs were all the rage in the 1950’s. Songs like Jody Reynolds’ Endless Sleep, Mark Dinning’s Teen Angel, Ray Peterson’s Tell Laura I Love Her, and J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers’ cover of Last Kiss, not only climbed the charts, but would decades later inspire Robert Dwight Buddy Brown to compose a Rock Opera that was one big Teen Tragedy song.

Taking the archetypes of the cowlicked nerd, the girl-next-door, and the greaser from the wrong side of the tracks, Buddy Brown spins a yarn that weaves from prose into song lyrics and back into prose and into lyrics again, composing the tapestry that is unique: I Was A Teenage Angel of Death, a rock opera without any music. Buddy Brown is hopelessly in unrequited love for Sarah Sue, the girl-next-door, who is smitten with Johnny Angel, a greaser from the wrong of side of the tracks. It is a tale as old as time… well, as old as the 1950’s anyway.