Asio Lyrics

White door, ninth floor, silent number, it's autumn on a cold avenue
Telex intercept, he sips a cigarette, warms up his V.D.U.

He gets his kicks from microchips, orders from the C.I.A.
Birobugs and lasers, casual surveillance, boardrooms and communiques

Don't use your phone and don't use mine
Don't speak treason, they're tapping the li-ine

Break-in, stake out, tell it in code
Everything is legal, anything goes
The nights gettin' darker and the ill wind blows
Your life's in a databank at ASIO

Trained in the ghettos of the Lebanon, truncheons and an M16
Selling skag, a U.N. flag, now he's trading in securities

Darwin rendezvous, a B-52, trenchcoat slightly creased
From a coup in Asia, A U.S. Air Force major
Buying dirty laundry, swearin' it's for peace

Infiltration, we'll never know
Just like Chile but the bruises don't show-ow

Break-in, stake out, tell it in code
Everything is legal, anything goes
The nights get darker and the ill wind blows
Your life's in a databank at ASIO

Spook behind the bar, unmarked car, rumour hangs like stale perfume
Flushing under beds, sniffin' 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
Do it for the practice, do it for the fun

Midnight, flashlight, crash on the door
Rats on the table, blood on the floor-oor

Break-in, stake out, tell it in code
Everything is legal, anything goes
The nights get darker and the ill wind blows
Your life's in a databank at ASIO

Redgum - Redgum Anthology 1976-1986

Nov 2024

1. Asio
2. Brown Rise & Kerosene
3. Diamantina Drover
4. Fabulon
5. Gladstone Pier
6. I Was Only 19 (a Walk In The Light Green)
7. I've Been To Bali Too
8. Killing Floor
9. Long Run
10. Maria
11. Poor Ned
12. Servin Usa
13. Spirit Of The Land
14. Still Life
15. Ted
16. The Last Frontier
17. Where Ya Gonna Run To
18. Yarralumla Wine