Lyrics published on The Complete Lyrics of Lorenz Hart
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Lorenz Hart wrote this song with Vivienne Segal in mind.
According to a story told by Richard Rodgers, Vivienne Segan complained that since the song ended on a low note""If I have to sing that low note eight nights a week, I'll develop balls" she said to Rodgers and he replied, "If you do you'll be the only one in the show who has them."
According to "The Rodgers and Hammerstein encyclopedia" this is the last lyric that Lorenz Hart wrote but this is not totaly true: for the revival of "A Connecticut Yankee" Rodgers asked Hart to write some new material to make the show more apealing (Herbert Fields wrote a new book as well), even if the partnership with Hart was already "broken" (in 1942 Rodgers worte Oklahoma! with Oscar Hammerstein II).
So they wrote 9 new songs, two of them (Elaine and I Won't sing a song were dropped before the New York opening). I agree with Robert Kimbal (editor of "the Complete Lyrics of Lorenz Hart") who thinks that the last song Hart wrote was I Won't sing a song and not this one.
"To Keep My Love Alive" was also the most popular song from this 135-performance production, itis acomedy song in which Morgan le Fay (Vivienne Segal) recalls the many husbands she "bumped off."
The melody is very simple and sweet, while the words are funny, witty and full of black humor; probably fo that reason the song worked so well.
VERSE
I've been married and married,
And often I've sighed,
I'm never a bridesmaid,
I'm always the bride.
I never divorced them-
I hadn't the heart.
Yet remember these sweet words
"Till death do us part."
REFRAIN 1
I married many men,
A ton of them,
And yet I was untrue to none of them
because I bumped off ev'ry one of them
to keep my love alive
Sir Paul was a frail;
he looked a wreck to me.
At night he was a horse's neck to me
So I performed an appendectomy
To keep my love alive.
Sir Thomas had insomnia
he couldn't sleep at night.
I bought a little arsenic
he's sleeping now all right.
Sir Philip played the harp;
I cussed the thing.
I crowned with his harp
to bust the thing.
And now he plays where harps are
just the thing,
To keep my love alive,
To keep my love alive.
REFRAIN 2
I thought Sir George had possibilities,
but his flirtations made me ill at ease,
and when I'm ill at ease
I kill at ease
To keep my love alive.
Sir Charles came from a sanatorium
and yelled for drinks in my emporium
I mixed one drink
He's in memorium
To keep my love alive.
Sir Francis was a singing bird
A nightingale. That's why
I tossed him off my balcony
To see if he could fly
Sir Athelstane indulged in fratricide;
He killed his dad and that was patricide
One night I stabbed him at my mattress side
To keep my love alive,
To keep my love alive.
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