Songs of Life on Lifes’ Terms By: William Burke Poetry in song for the rest of us is the theme of Songs of Life on Lifes’ Terms. It explores life situations that occur in most people’s lives. The poetry gets to the heart of everyday life in a way that everyone can relate to. After reading this, William Burke hopes the reader realizes that no matter how big their problems may be, they are not alone.

Choices in Life. Visions float in and out of our consciousness, reminding us of past experiences and future desires. Each has its emotional value, a price tag exacted from our being. Some bring soothing thoughts to relax our tense muscles; others promote anxiety or simply unpleasantness. No matter which form it takes, we have a choice of our reaction—sad, happy, upset, angry. Frustration can give way to serenity. Find the positive, which is ever-present, and choose to see it as it is meant.

The Ramones cut an unforgettable swathe through decades of popular music. With politically charged anger, raw sounds and ferocious 20 minute sets they undercut the glamour of the mainstream music industry and gave the punk movement an authentic voice – A voice which can still be heard echoing through the decades. Seen through the eyes of the people who were there - musicians, managers, producers, publicists - this insightful biography depicts the Ramones rebellion against the establishment, how they forged their unique voice against the pressures of censure and managed to stay honest until the bitter end. Updated to reflect the sad death of guitarist Johnny Ramone, this is the essential story of the punk scene’s most durable and influential band.

As a singer/songwriter, I've always viewed song lyrics as a form of poetry- poetry that has the potential to touch people's heart-felt feelings and emotions, with the help of a melody, voice and instruments. Here is my poetic collection of song lyrics to accompany my inspirational memoir Still Singing, Somehow. For those who have read my personal odyssey, these lyrics will add another dimension, and much insight, into many of the various stories and personal feelings expressed in the book.

W HAT I H A V E attempted in this book is a survey of song; the kind of song which one finds variously described as 'concert', 'art', or sometimes even 'classical song'. 'Concert song' seems the most useful, certainly the least inexact or misleading, of some descriptions, especially since 'art song' sounds primly off putting, and 'classical song' really ought to be used only to refer to songs written during the classical period, i. e. the 18th century. Concert song clearly means the kind of songs one hears sung at concerts or recitals. Addressing myself to the general music-lover who, though he possesses no special knowledge of the song literature, is never theless interested enough in songs and their singers to attend recitals of Lieder or of songs in various languages, I have naturally confined myself to that period of time in which the vast majority of these songs was composed, though not necessarily only to those composers whose songs have survived to be remembered in recital programmes today. I suppose this to be roughly the three centuries covered by the years 1650-1950, though most of the songs we, as audiences, know and love were composed in the middle of this period, in other words in the 19th century.

In her memoir, Strand of Pearls, author Deborah Livingston recounts her journey from childhood abuse, frequent tragedy, and adult addiction to a spiritual transformation that brought her an inner peace and joy available to us all. Deborah was the first of three children born to a Canadian father and a New England motherparents who were worlds apart in their own upbringings and views of the world. From two to sixteen, when she was finally able to break free, Deborah suffered abuse at the hands of her father. Her freedom from that abuse took her to abuse at the hands of others and to a tragic accident that cost the life of a friend. Her misfortunes early in life and her inability to see them as the pearls they actually were led to serious addiction in her early forties. And yet this addiction saved her life, preparing her for the inner transformation she would experience. In Strand of Pearls, Livingston invites the reader into the most painful, raw moments of her past so that the light of the present might shine brighteras an invitation to others to embrace hope, faith, and gratitude in their lives.

THE FINAL WORD ON THE GENIUS AND MISCHIEF OF THE RAMONES, TOLD BY THE MAN WHO KEPT THE BEAT - AND LIVED TO TELL ABOUT IT. When punk rock reared its spiky head in the early seventies, Marc Bell had the best seat in the house. Already a young veteran of the prototype American metal band Dust, Bell took residence in artistic, seedy Lower Manhattan, where he played drums in bands that would shape rock music for decades to come, including Wayne County, who pioneered transsexual rock, and Richard Hell and the Voidoids, who directly inspired the entire early British punk scene. If punk has royalty, Marc became part of it in 1978 when he was anointed 'Marky Ramone' by Johnny, Joey, and Dee Dee of the iconoclastic Ramones. The band of tough misfits were a natural fit for Marky, who dressed punk before there was punk, and who brought with him his 'blitzkrieg' style of drumming, as well as the studio and stage experience the group needed to solidify its line-up. Together, they would change the world. But Marky Ramone changed, too. The epic wear and tear of a dysfunctional group endlessly crisscrossing the country and the planet in a van - practically a psychiatric ward on wheels - drove Marky from partying to alcoholism. When his life started to look more out of control than Dee Dee's, he knew he had a problem. Marky left music in the mid-eighties to enter recovery and returned to help the Ramones finally receive their due as one of the greatest and most influential bands of all time. From the cult film Rock 'n' Roll High School to 'I Wanna Be Sedated' to Marky's own struggles, Punk Rock Blitzkrieg is an authentic, unflinching, and always honest look at the people who reinvented rock music. And not a moment too soon.