Boomerang

Never On The Test - garage rock - 3:44

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Song Background/Inspiration

You get laid off, replaced by a machine, and forgotten by the afternoon. Then, months later, the call comes - quietly, through the side door, with a better number attached - because the machine couldn't do what you did. Boomerang is sung from the chair of the person who was thrown away and came back, and it takes its name from the obvious physics: the thing you fling to be rid of has a way of arcing right back to your hand. The verses are cold and a little smug; the chorus swings on the simple inevitability of the return. Underneath the swagger is a sharper point - a company can rehire a person, but the hard-won knowledge that walked out with them does not always come back so easily.

Lyrics

You signed the memo, killed the lights Told the floor we'd be alright Said the future writes itself in clean machine You threw me out the open door Forgot my name by half past four Watched me disappear and called it all foreseen But the thing about a thing you throw It depends on how you let it go Bent just right, it don't stay gone Boomerang, boomerang You let me fly and here I am Cutting back across the sky to where you stand You called it gone, you called it done Funny how the arc still runs You can't unthrow a boomerang I'm coming back to your hand Ninety days of quiet wins Then the complaints came rolling in And the forty percent you couldn't automate Now the inbox writes me low and slow"No press release, just so you know" Side door open, higher number on the plate You said we'd only get in the way Look who's getting the call today Bent just right, I don't stay gone Boomerang, boomerang You let me fly and here I am Cutting back across the sky to where you stand You called it gone, you called it done Funny how the arc still runs You can't unthrow a boomerang I'm coming back to your hand You can rehire the hands, but not the why The reason-we-do-it-this-way died on the fly I'll come back, sure - I'll clean the mess But the part that walked out the door? That part don't come back, no Unless you ask it nice Boomerang, boomerang The same hand throws, the same hand hangs Open and empty, waiting on the swing You called it gone, you called it dead Should've thought of that instead You can't unthrow a boomerang I'm coming back to your hand.