Why Shouldn't I Smile?

I’ve had this tune for a while, but for whatever reason never had a decent approach to the arrangement until the last few weeks. I’m pleased with how it turned out, and particularly like how I stole a Sun Records Johnny Cash arrangement for the rhythm section nicely.

The lyrics:

I got a half a mind to keep driving
Until I hit the nearest tree
I made my name and my career is thriving
And I swear to God it’s killing me
By the power invested in me by the Board
I’m gonna burn the whole edifice down
Twenty years from this day there’ll be shivers and pain
When they mention my name in this town
Gone out of my mind
And I’m digging too deep in this hole
Why shouldn’t I smile
When my life’s spinning out of control?

Now I burned through my wife’s savings
And I spent my 401k
I got my radar detector detecting
I know that some crimes certainly pay
I started carrying a pistol
And I changed the plates on my car
Like they told me in the Business Department
It’s clear that I’m going far
I’m selling off stock
But for years I was selling my soul
Why shouldn’t I smile
When my life’s spinning out of control?

If you see any one of my clients
Just tell them I’ve escaped
Don’t mention the debt I’m accruing
Or that I’m caught in a bad scrape
So in their dreams they’ll be thinking of me
And they’ll picture me with wings
Flying high as they’re sleeping deeply
Beside their cherished, expensive things

I can’t imagine that a sane person holding any career track job–what we ostensibly are to strive for–doesn’t get the urge to up and toss it all out, frequently, I’d think. Capitalism definitely kills, often literally or in this case metaphorically. Incidentally, I had a professor who drove his car into a tree after having been found sleeping with students. That line indeed came from real life.