Jamaican reggae singer and musician. born Murvin Junior Smith, circa 1946 or 1949 in Swift River, Portland, Jamaica and grew up with his great-grandmother in Port Antonio until his 13th birthday, when he was placed with his grandmother in Montego Bay.
He moved to Trenchtown in 1967 and began singing under the nickname Slash with the Hippy Boys, making his first recording in 1968 under the name Junior Soul. He soon joined Jamaica’s best-known live band, the Falcons, with Noel Brown, Tyron Downie, Glen Brown, Cynthia Richard and Dennis Brown, then the Tornadoes and Bobby Ellis’s Young Experience. He joined Lee Perry’s Black Ark in 1976 where he recorded the single Police and Thieves under the name Junior Murvin (covered by The Clash in 1977).
Murvin’s soaring voice and the infectious rhythm made Police and Thieves into an international hit during the summer of that year. It peaked at #23 in the UK Singles Chart in 1980.
He died Monday 2, December 2013 of the diabetes suite in Port Antonio where he had returned to live since the 1990’s