**“Au Suivant” plunges us into Jacques Brel’s razor-sharp storytelling, where a twenty-year-old conscript stands naked in a towel, soap in hand, waiting his turn at a grim, army-run brothel. The barked order “Au suivant” (“Next”) ricochets through the line of 120 nervous soldiers, turning what should be an intimate first encounter into a joyless assembly-line ritual. Brel’s narrator longs for a smile, a trace of tenderness, anything that might make him feel human, yet the only thing he receives is the sour stench of garlic, cheap booze, and an adjutant’s voice that will haunt him forever.
Years later, every embrace resurrects that brutal command, and the singer realizes that societies, like armies, often treat people as numbers on a list. With biting irony and dark humor, Brel condemns militarism, sexual exploitation, and the way authority can strip away individuality. The song’s pounding refrain becomes a protest chant: all the “suivants” of the world should join hands and refuse to be herded any longer. In the end, the narrator dreams of any fate that would free him from being “the next,” reminding listeners that real dignity begins when we refuse to let others dictate our worth.