What are you listening to?

You could have an act with a lead cello, that had an orchestra feel. I think sometimes there was an orchestra used.

ELO had a cello in their band, but not a lead cello.

 


btw, Elvis Costello has written a book
Here is an excerpt from the book about writing Alison
http://www.vulture.com/2015/10/elvis-costello-on-his-inspiration-for-alison.html?mid=twitter_vulture

Chapter 13: Unfaithful Music

I’ve always told people that I wrote the song “Alison” after seeing a beautiful checkout girl at the local supermarket. She had a face for which a ship might have once been named. Scoundrels might once have fought mist-swathed duels to defend her honor.

Now she was punching in the prices on cans of beans at a cash register and looking as if all the hopes and dreams of her youth were draining away. All that were left would soon be squandered to a ruffian who told her convenient lies and trapped her still further.

I was daydreaming ... Again ...

* * * *

When it came time to write and then sing “Alison,” I knew that I’d never create a beautiful sound, as I was very obviously a mere mortal, unlike Marvin Gaye or Al Green or Philippe Wynne of The Detroit Spinners, as we knew them in England. But it was the Spinners’ recording of the Linda Creed–Thom Bell song “Ghetto Child” that gave me the musical idea for the chorus of “Alison.” I broke up the line “I know this world is killing you” in the same staccato fashion as the “Life ain’t so easy when you’re a ...” that precedes that title refrain of the Spinners’ hit.

Other than this, the emotional cues were pretty disguised.

The other song that was playing in my head when I wrote “Alison” was “The Wind Cries Mary” by Jimi Hendrix. It had been playing in there for a long time.

I believed that "Alison" was a work of fiction, taking the sad face of a beautiful girl glimpsed by chance and imagining her life unraveling before her.

It was a premonition, my fear that I would not be faithful or that my disbelief in happy endings would lead me to jill the love that I had longed for.

I have no explanation for why I was able to stand outside reality and imagine such a scene as described in the song and to look so far into the future, or what in the world would make me want this terrible prediction to come true or become untrue.

The name that I chose was almost incidental.

I knew it couldn't be a name of a glamorous, sophisticated woman, like Grace or Sophia, or a poetic heroine, like Eloise or Penelope. I needed a name that sounded like a girl anyone might know, and "Alison" fitted the tune.

There was never any violence intended in the refrain, just culpability. “This world” that was “killing” the heroine embraced all the circumstances I’d imagined for that nameless girl, a deadening of dreams through betrayal into bitterness. That the singer was the one doing the damage was as much as I could admit.

I look at all the words in the refrain and I still find it remarkable that many people have failed to understand what is being sung after a thousand or more repetitions. Of all the strange slights and underserved accolades attached to my name over the years, “misogynist” is the one term that I find most bewildering.
 
Joe Fan said:


btw, Elvis Costello has written a book
Here is an excerpt from the book about writing Alison
http://www.vulture.com/2015/10/elvis-costello-on-his-inspiration-for-alison.html?mid=twitter_vulture

Chapter 13: Unfaithful Music

I’ve always told people that I wrote the song “Alison” after seeing a beautiful checkout girl at the local supermarket. She had a face for which a ship might have once been named. Scoundrels might once have fought mist-swathed duels to defend her honor.

Now she was punching in the prices on cans of beans at a cash register and looking as if all the hopes and dreams of her youth were draining away. All that were left would soon be squandered to a ruffian who told her convenient lies and trapped her still further.

I was daydreaming ... Again ...

* * * *

When it came time to write and then sing “Alison,” I knew that I’d never create a beautiful sound, as I was very obviously a mere mortal, unlike Marvin Gaye or Al Green or Philippe Wynne of The Detroit Spinners, as we knew them in England. But it was the Spinners’ recording of the Linda Creed–Thom Bell song “Ghetto Child” that gave me the musical idea for the chorus of “Alison.” I broke up the line “I know this world is killing you” in the same staccato fashion as the “Life ain’t so easy when you’re a ...” that precedes that title refrain of the Spinners’ hit.

Other than this, the emotional cues were pretty disguised.

The other song that was playing in my head when I wrote “Alison” was “The Wind Cries Mary” by Jimi Hendrix. It had been playing in there for a long time.

I believed that "Alison" was a work of fiction, taking the sad face of a beautiful girl glimpsed by chance and imagining her life unraveling before her.

It was a premonition, my fear that I would not be faithful or that my disbelief in happy endings would lead me to jill the love that I had longed for.

I have no explanation for why I was able to stand outside reality and imagine such a scene as described in the song and to look so far into the future, or what in the world would make me want this terrible prediction to come true or become untrue.

The name that I chose was almost incidental.

I knew it couldn't be a name of a glamorous, sophisticated woman, like Grace or Sophia, or a poetic heroine, like Eloise or Penelope. I needed a name that sounded like a girl anyone might know, and "Alison" fitted the tune.

There was never any violence intended in the refrain, just culpability. “This world” that was “killing” the heroine embraced all the circumstances I’d imagined for that nameless girl, a deadening of dreams through betrayal into bitterness. That the singer was the one doing the damage was as much as I could admit.

I look at all the words in the refrain and I still find it remarkable that many people have failed to understand what is being sung after a thousand or more repetitions. Of all the strange slights and underserved accolades attached to my name over the years, “misogynist” is the one term that I find most bewildering.
Click to expand...

Good excerpt - thanks. I've read a couple of good reviews on the book
 
I know I am likely one of if not the only person who likes electronic but here is a fantastic remix by GusGus of a song from one of my favorite bands, Pizzicato Five. This dropped heavy and well nice. Dirty'ish.

 
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