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Chapter V
Dolly's Magic / The Sun Is Green - 7"
Verve Folkways - 1967
Michael Panontin
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This obscure little single marked one of Brian Ahern's first trips into the studio, both in front of the microphone and behind the controls. The mega-famous producer, who by now is renowned for having worked with, among many others, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, George Jones, Roy Orbison, Glen Campbell, and Linda Ronstadt, formed the group in his hometown of Halifax in 1966, originally as the Badd Cedes. The precocious Ahern, who was given his first guitar at age twelve after a particularly acute bout of asthma, was by his late teens already making regular appearances on local CBC TV shows Singalong Jubilee (where he helped a young singer named Anne Murray get her first break) and Frank's Bandstand.
The Badd Cedes had already recorded some demos in the CBC's Halifax studios. But in the fall of 1966 Ahern was offered a position with Arc Records in Toronto and the band suddenly found themselves much closer to the musical action. Upon arrival in The Big Smoke - that's Toronto to the tourists - they discovered there was already another group called the Bad Seeds, and so they decided on a name change to the more enigmatic Chapter V.
With things already moving quickly for the guys, Verve Records whisked them off to New York in February ('67) to record a trio of tracks. The effortlessly freewheeling 'Dolly's Magic', written, produced, arranged and sung by Ahern, was issued on both sides of the border and promoted with appearances on CBC's popular Music Hop show. First mention of the record in the press seems to be in the July 22nd issue of RPM that year, where the trade mag gives us "news about a couple of singles by a group known as The Chapter Five [sic]". (In fact, 'Dolly's Magic' was issued twice, with 'The Sun Is Green' in April that year and then again with its follow-up, 'Headshrinker' in July.)
Neither record lit the music world on fire. But for Ahern, it hardly mattered, as the budding producer would soon have his fingers in a number of new projects, including producing the Willapuss Wallapuss' little-known popsike nugget 'To Jone' as well as convincing Anne Murray to move to Toronto to record her '69 debut What About Me, the first in a long string of successful Ahern productions for the Canadian icon. Ahern would eventually make his way down to the USA, where he was asked to produce Emilylou Harris' major-label debut Pieces of the Sky, and the rest, to abuse a cliche, is history.
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