Scott Walker - Next Lyrics

Naked as sin, an army towel

Covering my belly

Some of us blush, somehow

Knees turning to jelly

Next, next



I was still just a kid

There were a hundred like me

I followed a naked body

A naked body follwed me

next, next



I was still just a kid

When my innocence was lost

In a mobile army whorehouse

Gift from the army, free of cost

Next, next



Me, I really would have liked

A little touch of tenderness

Maybe a word, a smile

An hour of happiness

But, next, next



Oh, it wasn't so tragic

The high heavens did not fall

But how much of that time

I hated being there at all

Next, next Now I always will recall

The brothel truck, the flying flags

The queer lieutenant who slapped

Our asses as if we were fags

Next, ne xt



I swear on the wet head

Of my first case of gonorrhea

It is his ugly voice

That I forever hear

Next, next



That 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 the each woman

I have taken to bed

Seems to laugh in my arms

To whisper through my head

Next, next



All the naked and the dead

Should hold each other's hands

As they watch me scream at night

In a dream no one understands

Next, next



And when I am not screaming

In a voice grown dry and hollow

I stand on endless naked lines

Of the following and the followed

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.