White door, ninth floor silent number
It's autumn on a cold avenue
Telex intercept, he sips a cigarette,
And warms up his VDU
Gets his kicks from microchips,
His orders from the CIA
Birobugs and lasers, casual surveillance
Boardrooms and communiqués
Don't use your phone, don't use mine
Don't speak treason, they're tapping the line
Break in, stake-out, tell it in code
Everything's legal, anything goes
The night's getting darker and an ill wind blows
Your life's in a databank at ASIO
Trained in the ghettos of the Lebanon
Truncheons and an M16
Sellin' scag, a UN flag,
Now he's trading in securities
Darwin rendezvous, a B52
A trenchcoat slightly creased
From a coup in Asia, a US Air Force Major,
Buying dirty laundry, swearing it's for peace
Infiltration, we'll never know
Just like Chile but the bruises don't show
Spook behind the bar, unmarked car,
Rumours hang like stale perfume
Flushing under beds, sniffing out the reds,
Nobody can feel immune
No names, no stress, no blame, no press
Clean when the dirty work's done
Allocate a budget, special branch thugs,
Who'll do it for the practice, do it for the fun
Midnight, flashlight, a crash on the door
Rats on the table, blood on the floor
This was based on what we knew of ASIO's techniques in 1984. They were much more physical then. That's now unnecessary: the song's references to extensive IT surveillance have proved to be rather prescient. Incidentally, public servants later impressed upon us how bulky our own ASIO files were. -MA.
It's autumn on a cold avenue
Telex intercept, he sips a cigarette,
And warms up his VDU
Gets his kicks from microchips,
His orders from the CIA
Birobugs and lasers, casual surveillance
Boardrooms and communiqués
Don't use your phone, don't use mine
Don't speak treason, they're tapping the line
Break in, stake-out, tell it in code
Everything's legal, anything goes
The night's getting darker and an ill wind blows
Your life's in a databank at ASIO
Trained in the ghettos of the Lebanon
Truncheons and an M16
Sellin' scag, a UN flag,
Now he's trading in securities
Darwin rendezvous, a B52
A trenchcoat slightly creased
From a coup in Asia, a US Air Force Major,
Buying dirty laundry, swearing it's for peace
Infiltration, we'll never know
Just like Chile but the bruises don't show
Spook behind the bar, unmarked car,
Rumours hang like stale perfume
Flushing under beds, sniffing out the reds,
Nobody can feel immune
No names, no stress, no blame, no press
Clean when the dirty work's done
Allocate a budget, special branch thugs,
Who'll do it for the practice, do it for the fun
Midnight, flashlight, a crash on the door
Rats on the table, blood on the floor
This was based on what we knew of ASIO's techniques in 1984. They were much more physical then. That's now unnecessary: the song's references to extensive IT surveillance have proved to be rather prescient. Incidentally, public servants later impressed upon us how bulky our own ASIO files were. -MA.