Youtube
I’ve been putting various of my songs and poems on the Majk Stokes youtube page, and a few of my songs are now on Bandcamp and Soundcloud as well, including one or two you won’t be able to hear anywhere else… but if you want to hear more, here’s how…
Aaargh!
My single, “Aaargh! (Everything’s a bit sh*t)” is an anthem for the 2020’s: I think it captures the zeitgeist quite succinctly. It’s not much of a spoiler alert to say that it’s one of the very few songs I’ve written that includes a naughty word… but I think it’s rather cathartic, and it’s got a nice easy chorus you can join in with. It’s available to download on Bandcamp, as is my song “Rewild Things“, which helped to raise money for a very worthwhile cause…
Socks, Facemasks and hold music
My 2020 Christmas single, “Socks”, can also be found on iTunes and similar places. Recorded at Offbeat Studios, we also did a little video for its B-side, The Facemask song: which is possibly the most scary you’ve ever seen me!
And I also have another single available, “Please Hold”, which is about phoning up BT or an internet supplier or something- and trying very hard to get through to a human being…
Available to download on iTunes, and to stream on Spotify etc. You can listen to a short blast of it here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/id1573827474?app=itunes
Albums
Two of my albums, “Too Much Caffeine” and “Time to Save the World”, and my single “Please Hold” are available to download on iTunes, and to stream on Spotify etc. To put you in the mood, you can listen to a short blast of the Please Hold here: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/id1573827474?app=itunes
If you want to listen to some samples of my songs on the two albums, you can find them on apple music:
Too Much Caffeine- the long-awaited second album
https://music.apple.com/gb/album/too-much-caffeine/1508569536
- Morning Song– Some people are morning people. I’m not.
- Nitrogen– We need to talk about nitrogen.
- Too Much Caffeine– You know what? I need another cup of coffee.
- Morning, Noon and Night– On love and other mental health issues.
- I Spied a Merry Maiden– An old folk song, about sex. And about Beltane, a Celtic Festival at the start of summer which the lefty, hippie, arty people of Edinburgh celebrate by running around on Calton Hill wearing lots of body paint… and not always much else.
- We Need the Bees– An environmental song.
- One of Those Days– The album’s token blues number. Sort of.
- XXXWhy?– A song about the differences between men and women.
- Black with Milk– How I take my coffee. (A set of jigs.)
- Dig that Archaeology– Why did Indiana Jones get depressed? Because he realised that his career was in ruins.
- Insomnia– Baby I just can’t get enough melotonin.
- Call Off Christmas (Alas Poor Alan Rickman)– A tribute to a great actor. I think I managed to get most of his films in there.
- Wake Up and Smell the Coffee– Another environmental song, in which the creatures of the Earth tell the human race to get a grip.
- Instant Coffee– An exposition on instant coffee and what I think of it.
Time To Save the World- the rather fine third album
https://music.apple.com/gb/album/time-to-save-the-world/1508358022
- Another song with a ridiculously long title… bites the dust– A short introduction: I realised that I have a habit of coming up with overlong song titles, so I thought I’d play with that idea.
- One more cup of coffee, and then we’ll save the world– The song that links the last album, Too Much Caffeine, and this one
- Baby you know what I want (part 1)– The song of an ageing rocker, who can’t remember what he came in here for.
- She said– On past girlfriends and communicating with them.
- Testify– QI- style interesting fact: in Roman times, men proved their loyalty or honesty by swearing on their balls. I think this should be introduced into modern politics, as in “cut off my balls if I’m lying.”
- CAT (G)– On cats and genetics.
- Mars/Venus– An archetypal story of man meets woman, into which I’ve woven all the rhymes for the two planets that I could think of… except that one.
- I *heart* NY– My first experiment with looping. And beatboxing. And rap. I hope anyone from NY who hears this one will forgive me.
- IT support– I’m having some trouble with my PC…
- Leeches– Not my favourite creatures. Written with my sister while walking the Overland Track in Tasmania
- Baby you know what I want (part 2)– Am I the only person in the world who uses the word “dooflinger”?
- The bear of bad news– An environmental song, featuring two of my favourite bears, and some of the troubles they face in the world today.
- No man’s land (Daddy what did you do in the war?)– A warning of what might happen if we don’t get our act together.
- Superhuman alien homesick blues– Saving the world is not going to be easy, especially if you’re trying to do it all on your own.
- Baby you know what I want (part 3)– Sooner or later we all get to the stage when a replacement brain would probably be useful
(To find them, look under “Majk Stokes” on itunes. If you look under “Majk”, there’s another performer who I believe is Kosovan and much more serious than I am. Do not get the two of us confused!)
Or of you’re old-fashioned enough to own a CD player and you’d like to order a CD, please fill in a contact form. Price £10 + p&p
Sweets from Strangers- the latest album
- Aaargh! (Everything’s a bit shit!)
- Please Hold
- Cute, but…
- Friends in High Places
- Crazy Little Thing
- Tally Ho
- Time Traveller Blues
- I Don’t Really Like This Song
- Land of the Free
- Real Superheroes Don’t Fly
- The Elephant in the Room
- I’ll See You There
All songs recorded at Offbeat Studios (unless otherwise stated.)
And if you want to have a listen to some of Majk’s songs performed “live”, here are a couple to whet your appetite…
The Quaker Meeting House where I work in my day job overlooks Victoria Street, now widely accepted as at least a decent chunk of the inspiration behind “Diagon Alley” in the Harry Potter books… and a while ago, street artist Kat Robertson came and drew some bees on our pillars- and made one of them a Dumbledore bee! (Dumbledore is an old word for bumblebee- but you already knew that…)
… and because Kat and I are both supporters of Extinction Rebellion, Dumbledore has an XR badge on his hat… and we did a little recording of my song, “We Need The Bees“
And just for good measure, this one was recorded at the Forest Cafe…