Thanks Dan... Tom Waits writes some good tunes. This is from his Rain Dogs CD
where the theme is the lost and homeless, Apparently stray dogs mark their territory
and know where they are by familiar smells, but when the rain comes everything
gets washed way, and then they are left blinking in the sun not knowing where to go.
Tom Waits does tend to get metaphysical sometimes.
I have always associated this song with New Orleans
and the dixieland funeral marches... clarinets and big bass drums.
There is also the suggestion that before he goes he want life
to deal him a good set of cards, and when he makes his final
exit then he goes out happy with confetti in his hair.
Suppose it is what everybody wants... a good life and to die happy.