RIP, Bob Schick: Honor Role vocalist/lyricist

Honor Role's Bob Schick (front) with drummer and brother Steve Schick and guitarist Pen Rollings
at the Fallout Shelter in Raleigh, NC, in 1987. (All photos by Kim Kirchstein)

By Andy

My heart goes out to the family and friends of Bob Schick, who passed away this morning.

The brilliant vocalist/lyricist fronted the stellar Honor Role, Coral, Dynamic Truths and Battered Youth.

I penned this and sent it his way two weeks ago: "Hi Bob, it’s your old pal Andy Nystrom. Just wanted to say that I appreciate your kindness, creativity and conviction and have tried to model myself after you over the years. It’s an honor to be part of the Honor Role fold and I have you to thank for leading the way in bringing me into that realm. I felt an instant connection with you all from day one in Raleigh and still feel it to this day. Thanks for making that young me feel special then and when you stayed with us in Redondo. My mom still asks about you all. We all love you, Bob."

Here's a piece I wrote for this blog in 2011:

Honor Role: Gut-wrenching, eye-opening tuneage

At first listen to Honor Role's album, "The Pretty Song," in Corrosion of Conformity's van with drummer Reed Mullin at the wheel, I wondered what this music was all about.

It was heavy, melodic, quirky, jagged, stunning and something you couldn't turn away from. Listen after listen — and Mullin played it repeatedly — brought about new parts that skipped by you the first time because you were focusing on the vocals and not the guitar, or the drums and not the bass, etc. Each part not only contributes to the whole, but tells its own story, so to speak ... and you want to give equal attention to everything. When you grasp your ears around the whole deal, you find that it's groundbreaking stuff — and still not many people know about it today.

Seeing them live at the Fallout Shelter in Raleigh, NC, in the summer of 1986 gave me hope that honest, gut-wrenching rock was alive and well. It was mesmerizing to witness Schick unleash his passionate, mind-bending vocals and grip the microphone stand tightly while gouging it into the stage.

Lyrically, "Observation" is one of Honor Role's many insightful, brutal journeys into the human condition:

At first glance, man seems a curious breed; Full of will and strength, a noble breed

But under closer scrutiny, threads are observable

These threads and hopes, they do define the thicknesses and weaknesses that form the personality

And as the stress, the stress increases, the threads separate and begin to fray

***

Then I look inside you, and I know you feel it 

When I pull at your threads, I can see how you react

Though you think I don't notice it, nothing escapes my view

Don't think it's obvious, to see what it takes to manipulate you

***

When I'm finished, yeah finished for the day, I'll leave you in the corner and go out to play

Leave you in the corner, so you can pull yourself together, pull yourself apart

In time, yeah time, you know, time heals all the wounds of love

Someday we will hold each other close, and probe the lines that are your scars.

Bob and Pen (photo: Kim Kirchstein)

Bassist Chip Jones (photo: Kim Kirchstein)

Steve (photo: Kim Kirchstein)