The Revels

There have been two groups calling themselves The Revels in the past and one current band: 1) The Revels were an early '60s instrumental rock group. While they were not a surf group, since they pre-dated surf music, they were a big influence on the later surf groups. The Revels' most famous song, "Church Key", became a surf music staple that was covered by countless surf groups. The group had a raunchy saxophone-oriented sound. 2) A Doo-Wop group called The Revels scored a minor hit in 1959 with a rhythm and blues version of a Totentanz, titled "Midnight Stroll." In fact, the song was originally titled "Dead Man's Stroll," which is a near-literal translation of Danse Macabre, if you remember that the stroll was a popular dance of the 50s. The title was reportedly revised after complaints, but the content of the song remains untouched, and it might as well simply be a description of a Medieval Memento mori illustration. Over a sharp, funereal drum percussion and echoing church bells, the Revels sing a repetitive, mournful descending motive, telling of witnessing a top hatted corpse pull himself out of his grave and shimmying down the street. By the end of the song, as is the tradition with the Danse Macabre, our narrator discovers the he has also joined in the dance, presumably headed toward his own coffin. The song has no proper middle-eighth section, but includes a terrific break. A saxophone picks up the song's lolling riff, and one of the singers cackles wildly over the top of it. The laugh is maniacal, but merry. One imagines that this is the laugh of death itself, leading the midnight stroll, just as endless rows of laughing Medieval skeletons led previous processions of dying men and women on their inevitable dances to the cemetery. 3) A current Melbourne based band formally known as 'The Crimson Flames'. The band originated in Leongatha as a school based band but has since become more prominent after the members left school. The Revels have released a 7 track EP titled 'World on Time'.