Keep Me In Your Heart For A While

Apologies to anyone who has lost a close loved one, it is a very difficult thing to come to terms with.

“Keep Me In Your Heart For A While” is one of the most beautiful , heartbreaking songs that I have ever heard. Warren Zevon , was an enfant terrible , with a wry sense of humour and a string of songs that were darkly funny , well written. Here are some of my favourites:

• Werewolves of London (everyone’s first Warren Zevon song and once voted as the best opening line in a song ever “I saw a Werewolf with a Chinese Menu in his hand”
• Play It All Night Long
• Lawyers Guns And Money
• Excitable Boy
• Mr Bad Example
• If You Won’t Leave Me (I’ll Find Somebody Who Will)
• I Was In The House When The House Burned Down
• Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner

That is a very small sample of his excellent canon , but the song I am concentrating on is “Keep Me In Your Heart For A While”.

From Wiki

“In interviews, Zevon described a lifelong phobia of doctors and said he seldom consulted one. He had started working out, and he looked physically fit. Shortly before playing at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival in 2002, he started feeling dizzy and developed a chronic cough. After a period of suffering with pain and shortness of breath, Zevon was encouraged by his dentist to see a physician; he was diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma, a cancer (usually caused by exposure to asbestos) that affects the pleura, a thin membrane around the lungs and chest lining. Zevon was deeply shaken by the news and began drinking again after 17 years of sobriety

When his diagnosis became public, Zevon told the media that he just hoped to live long enough to see the next James Bond movie (Die Another Day), a goal he accomplished.”

After this traumatic news Warren penned the beautiful “Keep Me In Your Heart For A While” with Jorge Calderon. For his wife. I have shared this with some widows that I know and they love its beautiful tender sentiments. You can read the lyrics or listen to the song. It is beautiful but also sad , I will include Warren’s take and the a few others like this Alfie Boe's take

When I watched the video with Warren I shed tears. So many people have covered this. Check out this YouTube list.

Keep Me In Your Heart For A While

Shadows are fallin' and I'm runnin' out of breath

Keep me in your heart for a while

If I leave you it doesn't mean I love you any less

Keep me in your heart for a while

When you get up in the mornin' and you see that crazy sun

Keep me in your heart for a while

There's a train leavin' nightly called "When All is Said and Done"

Keep me in your heart for a while

Keep me in your heart for a while

Keep me in your heart for a while

Sometimes when you're doin' simple things around the house

Maybe you'll think of me and smile

You know I'm tied to you like the buttons on your blouse

Keep me in your heart for a while

Hold me in your thoughts

Take me to your dreams

Touch me as I fall into view

When the winter comes

Keep the fires lit

And I will be right next to you

Engine driver's headed north up to Pleasant Stream

Keep me in your heart for a while

These wheels keep turnin' but they're runnin' out of steam

Keep me in your heart for a while

Keep me in your heart for a while

Keep me in your heart for a while

Keep me in your heart for a while

Jorge Calderon's version , he cowrote the song with Warren.