The World According to Jacques Brel # 4 - Au Suivant

Very, very hard-hitting this one. Sexual experience / abuse in the French or Belgian military. Covered by The Alex Harvey Band. As almost always with Brel, his version is better. Off the top of my head I'd say only Nina Simone's If You Go Away matches his Ne Me Quitte Pas. Au Suivant was sampled by Beck on Broken Train to interesting effect.

 

Au Suivant 

'Naked, in my towel, serving me as a loincloth
My forehead was red, and I had a soap in my hand
Next one, next one
I was only 20, and we were 120
At being the follower of the one followed
Next one, next one
I was only 20, and I was losing my virginity
In a portable brothel of an army on campaign
Next one, next one

Me, I would have liked a bit more gentleness
Or a smile, or, well, to have some more time
But - next one, next one
It wasn't Waterloo, but it wasn't Arcole either
It was the hour where one regrets having missed school
Next one, next one
But I swear, to hear this fucking adjutant
Is well enough to turn an army into a bunch of impotents
Next one, next one

I swear on the head of my first pox
That since, I hear this voice all the time
Next one, next one
This voice, stinking of garlic and bad alcohol
It's the voice of nations, it's the voice of blood
Next one, next one
And since, every woman, when it's time to succumb
In my hands, much too thin, seems to murmur:
"Next one, next one"

All the "next ones" of the world should give each other hands
That's what I cry in the night in my delirium
Next one, next one
And when I'm not delirious, I end up telling myself
That it's more humiliating to followed than to be the next one
Next one, next one
One day, I'll become an amputee, or a nun, or a hanged man
Anyway, one of those things where I won't be ever again
The next one, the next one.'