The Stanley Brothers
Rank Stranger
I wandered again to my home in the mountains
Where in youth's early dawn I was happy and free
I looked for my friends, but I never could find them
I found they were all rank strangers to me
Everybody I met (everybody I met)
Seemed to be a rank stranger
(seemed to be a rank stranger)
No mother nor dad
(no mother or dad)
Not a friend could I see
(not a friend could I see)
They knew not my name
(they knew not my name)
And I knew not their faces
(and I knew not their faces)
I found they were all
(I found they were all)
Rank strangers to me
(rank strangers to me)
"They've all moved away, " said the voice of a stranger
"To a beautiful home by the bright crystal sea"
Some beautiful day I'll meet 'em in heaven
Where no one will be a stranger to me
Everybody I met
(everybody I met)
Seemed to be a rank stranger
(seemed to be a rank stranger)
No mother nor dad
(no mother or dad)
Not a friend could I see
(not a friend could I see)
They knew not my name
(they knew not my name)
And I knew not their faces
(and I knew not their faces)
I found they were all
(I found they were all)
Rank strangers to me
(rank strangers to me)
Writer: Albert E. Brumley Sr.
Where in youth's early dawn I was happy and free
I looked for my friends, but I never could find them
I found they were all rank strangers to me
Everybody I met (everybody I met)
Seemed to be a rank stranger
(seemed to be a rank stranger)
No mother nor dad
(no mother or dad)
Not a friend could I see
(not a friend could I see)
They knew not my name
(they knew not my name)
And I knew not their faces
(and I knew not their faces)
I found they were all
(I found they were all)
Rank strangers to me
(rank strangers to me)
"They've all moved away, " said the voice of a stranger
"To a beautiful home by the bright crystal sea"
Some beautiful day I'll meet 'em in heaven
Where no one will be a stranger to me
Everybody I met
(everybody I met)
Seemed to be a rank stranger
(seemed to be a rank stranger)
No mother nor dad
(no mother or dad)
Not a friend could I see
(not a friend could I see)
They knew not my name
(they knew not my name)
And I knew not their faces
(and I knew not their faces)
I found they were all
(I found they were all)
Rank strangers to me
(rank strangers to me)
Writer: Albert E. Brumley Sr.
This song has two themes. First you can't go back. Even if you're city folk, you can't go home. If you try, you find the Bob's Big Boy is gone and so is the nice mall, there's a Dirty Walmart there, with a bunch of drug addicted "homeless" people hanging around outside.
Part of not being able to go home is losing track of friends. Friends I miss you, let's find each other.
The other theme is of course, the final restoration, in Heaven.
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
1 Corinthians 13:13
In Heaven "no one will be a stranger to me".
Part of not being able to go home is losing track of friends. Friends I miss you, let's find each other.
The other theme is of course, the final restoration, in Heaven.
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
1 Corinthians 13:13
In Heaven "no one will be a stranger to me".
I was reminded of this song when this version was on my YouTube feed, by the Cotton Pickin Kids
Honorable mention to Josh Turner and Friends