Bunny Marrett - Times Are Getting Harder / Hard Times Dub Bunny Marrett

For someone who had been performing since childhood in Jamaica and regularly sang with bands after relocating to the UK, as well as writing several songs for other artists, Bunny Marrett was poorly served for contemporary releases. In fact, his sole vinyl outing was 1980's Times Are Getting Harder, a nice roots vocal with accompanying Hard Times Dub, released on Gene Walsh's nascent Shoc Wave label. Gene was still finding his feet in the music industry and still learning the balancing act between copies pressed and potential demand. For Times Are Getting Harder, Gene kept his costs low and did the minimum pressing run. He also kept costs down with his choice of B-side, using his pool of local musicians including Joshua Moses to provide a brace of dub tracks, Running Dub and Creation Dub, enigmatically credited to Don Gordon.

Like countless other excellent British reggae singles, the lack of proper distribution and promotion saw Times Are Getting Harder barely sell beyond Bristol, or more specifically the St. Paul's area where Bunny was well known as a pillar of the community. It's likely that Times Are Getting Harder is the scarcest Bristol reggae release, with copies having always been difficult to find, even in Bristol. With online sellers now asking three-figure sums for the occasional copy that surfaces, a properly done reissue is long overdue. Bristol Archive Records are delighted to make this classic four-track slice of Bristol roots and dub readily available for the first time in forty-six years.

This release is dedicated to the late Bunny Marrett RIP.