First post: I had dropped two sugar cubes

Blogging software seems like the easiest way to add content to this site. For a first post, here’s a description of a UV show from long before I knew him:

heres the rundown on Uncle Vinty. I saw the cat do his stuff at a Clap Concert at the Carousel Ball Room, (New Fillmore West in S.F.) around ’71. I think It was the Eric Burdon and War Show…I didnt get that far..I had dropped two sugar cubes and some one spilled a coca cola on me while I was sitting on the floor. A whole mass of freaks circled me and started weirding out because the cola started to crawl all over me like a fuckin’ alien in a horror show..(It was like..”Look at him!…what is that shit???) anyway, as I was leaving Bernardo was getting mobbed by some teenaged girls at the bottom of the stairs. On acid that fucker was a cross between Jim Morrisson, Keith Richards and Little Richard…(odd mix!!) Dig this; Uncle Vinty bellied up to the Piano and started to sing a whole meddly of baudy folk songs while bundled up like an 1850’s Alaskan Sled Dog Clondike prospecter. Full fur hooded get-up etc. Well, as the songs progressed he kept taking off layer after layer of clothing..the mob got wilder..(wanting Eric)..Uncle Vinty broke into a rather provocative (ten dollar word) slow strip-tease. By the time I dragged my alien cola crawlin’ ass outa there he was wailing in nothin’ but a pair of red long johns.

That’s from the diggers.org guestbook.

[Note from Admin: post closed to comments 2009/11/07 due to alarming quantity of comment spam]

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5 Responses to “First post: I had dropped two sugar cubes”

  1. Jon Says:

    I met Vinty at the Resh House in Mill Valley in 1970. I was still a teenager, but he treated me like an adult, which I appreciated. We used to go the beach or for hikes, and I remember staying in his van, Creampuff, in which he lived. He got me interested in meditation, and he taught me a lot. Although we lost touch after a couple of years, I have never forgotten him, and hope that he feels my love and fond memories.

  2. Mark Styles Says:

    I met Vinty in Boston in the mid 70’s. I eventually moved to the mid-west and played in a short lived band.. I liked his approach to music.. He had a concept for each song.. And he created a scenario for them also. His approach was unique.

  3. Russ M Says:

    I met Uncle Vinty(Vincent..???) in King, Wi at the King’ Roost. Just as the Two Cubes guy described, UV came out in this prospector outfit, with just a head lamp on, and sat down at the piano, and the show went on as described above. I know he made a couple of apearances there, and I saw him in the mid 70’s also. I met him at a party after bartime and blew a joint with him. He told me he did this show as a break from college. I think he said he was from the Boston area. Cool dude, with a unique act. I tried to see a show he was going to put on back in the early 80’s in Maribel WI but he cancelled out, and I haven’t heard about him since.

    It would great if someone could let me know what’s he’s doing today. Family, etc. He still is the talk among my friends, as he made quite an impression on us.

  4. webmaster Says:

    Hi Russ. Vinton Medbury, aka Uncle Vinty, died in California in October of 1994. He was a friend to me, as he was to many, and I made this site as a “place” where people who remember him could find each other and trade stories, videos and recordings.

    So thanks for posting. It turns out he made an impression on quite a few people!

    There’s a video on the home page and a link to a few mp3 downloads. A very kind commenter recently sent me a couple of MP3s that I’ll post as soon as I can–they’re from Vinty’s 3-song-album, and I’m hoping to get a scan to go with the songs.

  5. Paul G Says:

    Funny I should stumble upon this site – Vinty just popped into my head over the last couple of days. I was a DJ in Seattle in 1973 when I met him. He was living in the original Creampuff (a renovated bakery truck) and we hit it off immediately. In the summer of ’74 I traveled down the coast with him, living in the truck and visiting his friends in the Bay Area. Vinty was bisexual, which I am/was not, so there was always an interesting crackle in the air between us. But we kept in touch and he’d park in front of my house on his frequent Seattle trips. Shortly before he became ill – around 1990 – he came up and he’d rigged up the newest truck with an early computer-based recording studio. We laid down 4 or 5 tracks – some of his tunes, some of mine. Somewhere I have a cassette tape. If I can find it I’ll digitize it and post it up here.

    Vinty was originally from Rhode Island, and claimed to be a friend of Jackson Browne, though I don’t know exactly what that connection was. He was a talented musician – a late-breaking Vaudevillian really.

    Vinty got quite sick and died right around the time that my first wife passed away after 11 years fighting cancer. Sadly, I never got to say goodbye to him. He was a genuine free spirit, who brought a lot of pleasure and joy to everyone who knew him or saw him perform. R.I.P. old buddy.