About those strings of life

As found on the youtube account of Michael James, the story of how Derrick May’s Strings of Life was started with a piano piece by Michael James

The original Strings of Life, credited to Derrick May, came from a song I wrote called, Lightning Strikes Twice. Derrick sequenced it, added his drum track and strings and it became the song Frankie Knuckles named Strings of Life.

Through the years, many people have told me how this song changed their lives. I can only take credit for providing the piano that Derrick laid all the rest upon. Unfortunately, at times Derrick has taken more credit for the song than he should, but I always tell people to remember that this could not have been done without him. Techno was his world. I was just a guy who played a little piano and wrote songs.

This story can be found on Discogs as well. It’s great to read the story about the piano piece that started the composition called The Strings Of Life. I love what Derrick May did with it, the drum programming on the 909, 707 and 727, the added strings. I’m listening to Derrick May’s Innovator album a lot lately and really appreciate his drum programming in general, using multiple drummachines in a pure way with not that much processing. You can really distinct the sounds of these different machines.