James Green September 30, 1953- January 20, 2021

Commentary, Obituaries — By Buddy Sampson on February 23, 2021 at 3:58 pm

By Buddy Sampson

I’ve written lots and lots and lots of obituaries, and if I said they didn’t affect me, I’d be lying. Like all of us, I’ve gone through lots of personal sadness, and I’ve cried more than I ever have, I’m pretty sure in my life, maybe as all of us have, hard for me to measure.

It’s been very, very, hard, with everything going on to be my usual self, and to everyone, I apologize. Like everyone else, trying to cope.

But sometimes, mere words are just not enough to encapsulate a person’s life and while the words may be inadequate, you can sometimes capture a spirit.

James Green, my main man, was born September 30, 1953. His parents were James Green 3^rd and Blanche Green.

Now I didn’t have a chance to know his father. But I knew Blanche well. And just by knowing Blanche, I understood why the Green family had such strong character, strength, determination……

They were all funny. All the Green Brothers. Steven, Gregory, James.

All of them were always funny, man- I should know, because at some point, all of them have played practical jokes on me. Steve Green in particular, sometimes I’d wake up and find all kinds of stuff in my bed…cold man!

My personal story with James started through my association with his brother, Steve Green, the insatiable prankster. By the way, he’s still that way to this day.

But I digress.

Those of you that knew James Green, knew that he was NOT your usual guy. Big shout out to my Philly neighborhood, because many of you may have knew James.

James Green went to Edison High School. I’d imagine that while there, he probably had the classes rolling because he was a super funny guy. He was a natural comedian and to say I loved that guy was an understatement.

It stands to reason that because of his natural ability to be funny, he became a professional comedian, touring with Philly International star Dexter Wanzel.

He served in the Air Force, and all I have to say it that I wouldn’t have wanted to do a parachute drop with him, because he would have you laughing so hard, you’d fall out of your parachute.

Handsome and undeniably charming, we knew him back in the day as “Beanie,” and when Beanie came up with something, he was so charismatic that no matter how wild or crazy it was he would manage to talk us into it.

Uh, which brings me to Jimi Ernesto and the Absolute Waist Band, the CRAZIEST band to this day I’ve ever played with, a band that started out as a comedy rock band. I mean, really, who could have came up with the idea of that band except James.

I’ve seen a number of audiences, either laughing or with their mouths hanging open, not to know what to make of us.

It was a fun band to play in, except IT WAS THE LOUDEST BAND before and since that I’ve ever played in my life. We had my boy Linwood Gray on guitar (who was called Linwood Loud for a reason you know) and another prime fellow of loudness, Mike Davis on guitar. After one of our gigs, I went to work and for that entire week all I heard was ooooooooooooooooooooooo.

I told James, Bro…….

But anyway, we remained friends. I might have suggested another bass player, I don’t remember. The loudness affected my brain.

Later, he came to Los Angeles California and well, let’s just keep it at “We painted the town red.” I think that sums it up pretty nicely. (For legal representation purposes, I choose to respectfully invoke the Fifth.)

During that time, I saw a side of James that people rarely got to see. James wanted to do something- something to affect change. He tried out for the Police Academy in Los Angeles and of course, as you may have gathered, as one of the prankster Greens, he once again he talked me into going to the Academy with him to try out. “Come on man, it’ll be fun.” What the….

So, we went.  And he and I killed the obstacle course. I mean killed it. The Police Academy was impressed. I think we only failed because we gave the wrong answer to some question about snitching on your fellow officers… I don’t know……. Something like that…

But he tried out for the Academy because he wanted to make a difference.

Think about it for a minute.

Since James wasn’t readily admitted to the Police Academy, he decided to serve in the Philadelphia Prison system for 25 years- a thankless job that I’m sure required all the humor, all the funny ness he could muster.

But he did it not only for a paycheck, but because he still wanted to be in a system, some sort of system that can help to change lives.

As I said, I saw a side to James that people rarely saw- a man that cared about society and his community by being on the front lines of change. And that took serious conviction, which affected his own life.

James wanted to make a difference in his community in a small way. He got married to a lovely lady, Iris Green. And I’m sure that they had laughs, fun and adventure together. Iris, I’m sure knows how caring James was about his community.

Although one of his sons, Matthew Green is deceased, along with his brother Gregory Green, he is survived by his wife Iris Green and daughter Jennifer Green and son James Green 5^TH, along with his brother Steve Green and sister Kim Nelson, and grandchildren Anthony Robinson and Kimani Robinson.

So today, while we celebrate the life of this very funny man, know that he was also a caring man, that gave much of his life making things a little bit better for all of us.

Buddy Sampson