Requiem for TK
Guitar Castle Forever.
I learned this weekend of the passing of Salem legend Tim Knight.
A lot of us from the Salem crew were lucky enough to know Tim. I bought my first electric guitar at Guitar Castle when I was nine and then a couple years later Tim gave me a job working the counter for store credit (my request).
Tim was the coolest person in town. To anyone from Salem, this is an uncontroversial statement. More of an observation. On a sunny day he would wheel the record player out front of the shop and put on old Rolling Stones LPs, skipping straight to the Keith Richards songs. He once tried to talk John Fahey into giving me guitar lessons. Thurston Moore would drop by sometimes.
Tim was the first adult I remember taking my music seriously. He recorded our first band, Rocket, when we were thirteen years old. He was a lodestar for the local music scene and, in a town that felt like it had a 5pm noise curfew, he always kept a candle burning for rock and roll.
I wrote and recorded this little song after I heard the news.
Rest in peace, Tim. Thanks for everything.
