“I don’t need your shoulder….”
The late 1980’s found me comfortably nestled into a rock cradle. I was listening to bands like Aerosmith, Def Leppard, Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, Guns n’ Roses, and more hard rock and glam acts. One of the bands that slipped into my listening queue was Vixen, one of the most successful all female rock bands in history. Their 1988 self-titled debut had two big hits on it, Edge Of A Broken Heart and Cryin’ and a third single, Love Made Me, that also performed very well.. It also featured a solid lineup of supporting tracks that proved to be more than filler.
The album is loaded with some awesome heavy hitters like I Want You To Rock Me, Hell Raisers, and Cruisin’. The album’s three singles and songs like Charmed Life all had radio-ready production and sing along choruses. In fact, the entire album was slickly produced and sounded amazing. That should be a good thing but it was actually detrimental to the band’s image.
As Vixen’s popularity began to grow, so did the ire of their critics. Being an all female band, they were often written off as a gimmick. They were accused of not being able to play their instruments even though the entire band were more than capable of performing all of their songs live. Founder and lead guitarist Jan Kuehnemund has some lethal solos on this album and on later releases by the band. Janet Gardner’s vocals were both emotional and powerful. Bassist Share Pedersen (eventually Share Ross) and drummer Roxy Petrucci provide a rhythm section that could easily hold its own against many of their contemporaries. Still, critics were relentless and tried to credit the album’s producers and songwriters which included Richard Marx, Spencer Proffer, and David Cole, for doing most of the work and for making the “girls” sound excellent. This unwarranted criticism would push the band to write almost all of the songs for their follow up album, 1990’s Rev It Up, and the band scored Top 100 tracks with How Much Love, Love Is A Killer, and Not A Minute Too Soon.
I loved Vixen and still listen to it to this day. The band split up in 1992 and would reappear in different configurations throughout the rest of the decade and well into the 2000’s. Share Pedersen wouldn’t return until a VH-1stint in 2004 and the eventual reunion of the classic lineup in 2012. Kuehnemund carried the flag for the band throughout most of the years following 1992. She joined back up with Petrucci and Gardner in the late 90’s and then continued the band with different members after that. When the classic lineup did finally reunite seriously in 2012, the group was put on hold when it was announced that Kuehnemund had cancer. She would pass away in 2013. The rest of the classic lineup decided to continue on with Gina Stile on lead guitar. Eventually Stile would be replaced by former Jaded guitarist Britt Lightning. Gardner would leave the band on good terms in 2019 and would be replaced by current singer and former Femme Fatale frontwoman, Lorraine Lewis.
I really love Vixen and can’t wait for them to release new music with Lewis and Lightning. The entire band is very active on social media, especially Britt Lightning, and I highly recommend following them. Their debut album was amazing and so were their later releases including their most recent one, Live Fire, which I’ve reviewed on this blog when it was released. I hope to see them play live in the near future as well. They are one of the few bands that I want to see live that I haven’t seen yet.
Thanks for reading my post. Oh, I had a mad crush on Share Ross from day one. I still do.
Ken's Alternate Universe! 