In Hardtail Strat: Guitars, Heroin, Song, and Stories, Peter Gallway traces his coming of age in the electric pulse of Greenwich Village’s 1960s music revolution. From shooting rubber bands in Arthur Miller and Marilyn Monroe’s Sutton Place apartment to shooting heroin in the backrooms of New York, Gallway plunges into the intoxicating world of the Night Owl Café alongside the Lovin’ Spoonful and James Taylor, through the Troubadour, Mama Cass, the Manson family, and the record companies of LA’s Sunset Strip—until the road leads to Tokyo, and finally Maine, where a Fender “hardtail” Stratocaster guitar leads to an unlikely rebirth.

Written in the raw, lyrical rhythm of a songwriter who “thinks in stanzas,” Hardtail Strat is a story of music and madness, abuse and opportunity, loss and redemption—and the enduring power of song to set us free.

           A Hard Day’s Night hits the theaters.
           We go to the opening.
           How can you not want to feel like that?

           Free.