Meet Eddie Soto

Latinos Doing their Thing Presents…

When I’m asked who I am, I always have a tough time answering. My first impulse is to recite the speech I’ve worked on since boyhood. That long-winded speech about being the transplanted Puerto Rican trying to live in a “White Man’s World” and all of the angst that accompanies that lifestyle. I continue with adding that I’m also a “Baby Boomer” desperately picking up the pieces of racial opression . Then I stop and think “Oh My God!!!!” What a Whiner!!! Life is for me the same as it is for you. Sometimes it was complicated.

I was born in Mayguez, P.R. and raised in Lorain, Ohio. I have been working as a graphic artist and playing music since since Christopher Columbus was in Junior High School. My first band was called “The Backyard Syndicate”. Please forgive the name but that was during the mid 60s when bands had names like “The Electric Prunes”and “1910 Fruitgum Company”. I don’t know if it helped or hurt us but we were lucky and got to play out alot. We played shows split nights alongside local notables like Al Retay, A.J. Robey, Lou Telloni and Vic Bleckman, (became Uncle Vic 1n the late 70s). I never thought of Lorain as a hotbed of entertainment (it wasn’t) but it is the town that spawned recognizable names like Don Novello (Fr. Guido Sarducci-see the Wikipedia bio) Bob Pelander (MichaelStanley band) Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize laureate author.

I went on to play with “The Nombres” in the very early 70s and put out an album that, despite the effort, didn’t do so well. Years later after many nondescript bar bands, “Trixx”,”Stymee”,”Archer” (all of them were Energy Talent bands with Otto Nueber as manager), I joined “The Generic Band” and started performing again. We didn’t do much but boy did we have fun. We did a local tv show a couple of times (videos are viewable on Youtube). That carried over to a band with even more fun,. . “Quick” with Ron Redfield, Jimmy Black (“Block Logic”), Dave Mackey (ZaZa), Nick Lepar (Defcon 1) and Brian Shapiro. That was followed by a few years with “Dreamstreet”. (there were a few incarnations of that band before me and after me. The great thing about Dreamstreet was that we opened for a really long list of big artist and RockHall inductees. Those days were very exciting and we all had a sense of having reached great heights. Sadly we were only “Almost Famous”. One thing lead to another. The album (never released) generated some excitement but didn’t get us on a national tour. It did get me a short stint as lead singer for the 60s band “The Outsiders” (“Time Won’t Let Me” fame). Capitol Records was releasing an anniversary cd of the Outsiders and asked Tom King ( the bands founder and songwriter) to put together a band in support of the cd. During my time with the Ousiders, a cd of our live preformances was produced that is (was) selling at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum. The cd is also available online. Then MORE NOTHING but barbands.

Now I’m involved in a project where the focus is not on fame and fortune or bars or big stages and getting laid. We’re not concerned with meeting quotas or trying to sound like the “Star DuJour”.We’re doing alot of writing and recording and we’re quite content with doing shows whenever we can. I occasionally post some of my songs here on Myspace and post limited pieces of art on Facebook. My life is alot simpler now.