A traditional use of the song is as a funeral march. In the tradition of New Orleans, Louisiana, often called the "jazz funeral," while accompanying the coffin to the cemetery, a band would play the tune as a dirge. On the way back from the interment, it would switch to the familiar upbeat "hot" or "Dixieland" style. The song is apocalyptic, taking much of its imagery of the day of final judgment, including references to Solar and Lunar eclipses, from Acts 2:20 and the Book of Revelation. It is nicknamed "The Monster" by some jazz musicians, as it seems to be the only tune some people know to request when seeing a Dixieland band, and some musicians dread being asked to play it several times a night. Everyone knows the second verse (you know, the one that repeats the title of the song, and how the singer "wants to be in that number"), so here's the song's closing stanza instead: "Some say this world of trouble, Is the only one we need, But I'm waiting for that morning, When the new world is revealed."
