Next Songtext
von Peter Straker

Naked as sin, an army towel covering my belly
Some of us blush, some howl, knees turn to jelly

Next! Next!

I was just a kid, there were a hundred like me
I followed a naked body, a naked body followed me

Next! Next!

I was still just a kid when my innocence was lost
In a mobile army whorehouse, gift of the army, free of cost

Next! Next!

Me, I really would have liked a little bit of tenderness
Maybe a word, a smile, an hour of happiness

But, Next! Next!

Oh, it wasn′t so tragic, the high heavens didn't fall
But how much at that time I hated being there at all

Next! Next!

Now I always will recall the brothel trucks, the flying flags
The queer lieutenant who slapped our asses as if we were fags


Next! Next!

I swear on the wet head of my first case of gonorrhoea
It is his ugly voice that I forever hear

Next! Next!

The voice that stinks of whiskey, of corpses, and of mud
It is the voice of nations, it is the thick voice of blood

Next! Next!

And since then each woman I have taken to bed
Seems to laugh in my arms, to whisper through my head

Next! Next!

Oh, the naked and the dead should hold each other′s hands
As they watch me scream, I'm naked, I breathe, no one understands

Next! Next!

And when I'm not screaming in a voice grown dry and hollow
I stand on endless naked lines of the following and the fallow

Next! Next!


One day I′ll cut my legs off or burn myself alive
Anything, I′ll do anything to get out of line, to survive
Never to be next, never to be next