The Starfires — “I Never Loved Her”: Brace for the Obscure (60s rock)! — May 28, 2022

THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD

465) The Starfires — “I Never Loved Her”

This “brutally awesome” (On the Flip-Side, http://ontheflip-side.blogspot.com/2015/04/southern-california-spotlight-starfires.html) ‘65 A-side by the L.A. garage band the Starfires is so groovy that “[o]riginal copies sell for over $1,000 . . . . It’s believed only 25 copies or less exist!” (Yellow Paper Suns, https://yellowpapersuns.com/2022/04/24/listen-in-8/) A great birthday present for me!

YPS hails the song:

Here is a legendary record among 60s garage enthusiasts, The Starfires from Los Angeles with their intense and downright vicious tune ”I Never Loved Her”. . . . [I]t [is] one of the true greats of the genre. With it’s pounding bass, snarling vocals, screams, snotty attitude and teen angst ”I Never Loved Her” will live long in your memory.

https://yellowpapersuns.com/2022/04/24/listen-in-8/

To Jessica Lipsky, it “starts with the low growl of a pissed-off singer on top of a simple guitar riff and the hit of a high hat, before turning into a smoothly crooned early-psych song.” (https://www.jlipsky.com/groove-merchant-sf) On the Flip-Side says that the singer “swings back and forth between a snarly growl and a soft croon as the bass just grooves along.” The Pebbles garage comp (vol. 8) calls it “brooding” and “haunting.”

The Listening Post says that “once you hear those lyrics, you’ll definitely be glad you’re not ‘her’.” (The Listening Post, https://thelisteningpostblog.wordpress.com/2017/02/12/song-of-the-day-starfires-hand-full-of-blood/) So true:

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