Rank Strangers to Me
(Albert E. Brumley)

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

[CHORUS]
Everybody I met
(Everybody I met)

Seemed to be a rank stranger,
(Seemed to be a rank stranger,)

No mother or 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)

I searched every face for a sign of a loved one,
And I asked ev'ry one where the old folks could be,
I went down the road to inquire of some neighbors,
But found they were, too, rank strangers to me.
[CHORUS]

"They 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.
[CHORUS]


Copyright 1943, Stamps-Baxter Music & Printing Co.

from the Brumley songbook, The Best of Albert E. Brumley

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Click to play

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Click to play (harmony)

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Click to play (with accompaniment)

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Here's a quote from Dale Rose from another thread:

I don't think you can stress too much the fact that this is an Albert E. Brumley song. While it has frequently been listed as traditional or credited to the Stanleys, Brumley wrote it in 1942. He left us with a legacy of so many wonderful songs~~I'll Fly Away, Camping In Canaan's Land, If We Never Meet Again, Turn Your Radio On . . .