"The Ring"

I listened to Argent's Circus this morning and started wondering about the effects on "The Ring" again.  I've long suspected that at least one of the effects is ring modulation, although I can't find anything to confirm this.  If this is the case, though, the title has a dual meaning:  there's "ring" in the sense of ring modulation, and there's also "ring" in the sense of circus ring, in keeping with the album's theme.

"It's Magical" b/w "Summersong"

According to Russo's Collector's Guide, fifty years ago to-day (24 May 1974), Colin Blunstone's "It's Magical" b/w "Summersong" (Epic S EPC 2413) was released in the U.K.

"The Coming of Kohoutek"

I listened to Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique yester-day, and afterwards, I was thinking about "Dies Irae," which is quoted in the last movement.  A loose quotation of it also appears at the beginning of Argent's "The Coming of Kohoutek," and I realized that its placement at the beginning of the three linked songs that start the Nexus album ("The Coming of Kohoutek," "Once Around the Sun," and "Infinite Wanderer") has some significance and is appropriate for this context.  As Rod Argent explains in this interview,  "the comet [Kohoutek] was heralded as being potentially one of the most spectacular events to occur in the sky for many years.  In the far past, spectacular comet visitations had been linked to all sorts of prophesies of doom and destruction, and I included a very famous musical theme - the Dies Irae, (Day of Wrath), written in the 13th century."  Obviously, the theme heralding the "Day of Wrath" precedes the event that it announces, and likewise, Argent's quotation of the tune comes first in the song.