Stanley Brothers - The Rank Stranger

First performance:

Coverinfo

Bruce did no cover of the song but used parts of it for 'Long Walk Home' debuted on 11 Nov 2006 in London, England, during The Seeger Sessions Tour. The song was recorded during the Magic recording sessions which took place between March and May 2007 at Southern Tracks Studios in Atlanta, GA. 

The lyrics
 
"I looked in their faces / They were all rank strangers to me", and much of this song's theme, are borrowed from the old country/gospel song 'Rank Strangers ( to me ) ': "They knew not my name and I knew not their faces / I found they were all rank strangers to me".

"In that particular song a guy comes back to his town and recognizes nothing and is recognized by nothing," Springsteen told The New York Times' A. O. Scott. "The singer in 'Long Walk Home,' that's his experience. His world has changed. The things that he thought he knew, the people who he thought he knew, whose ideals he had something in common with, are like strangers. The world that he knew feels totally alien. I think that's what's happened in this country in the past six years."
 
More info on Springsteenlyrics
 

Songinfo

The Rank Stranger  is a song by the Stanley Brothers. Though strongly associated with the legendary Stanleys, 'Rank Stranger' was not authored by them. Instead, it was the work of prolific gospel songwriter Albert E. Brumley, Sr., the composer of such other seminal gospel classics as 'Turn Your Radio On' and 'I’ll Fly Away.' Composed in 1942, 'Stranger' would not be popularized until the Stanley Brothers committed it to vinyl at the somewhat late date of 1960. Though it is often reported that the brothers recorded the tune in Nashville, various sources indicate otherwise, that it was actually tracked at a remote
facility in Jacksonville, Florida, near the end of May or early part of June of 1960. (The Stanleys were, at the time, headlining a live, weekly radio show, the Suwannee River Jamboree, from Live Oak, Florida.) The recording was released later that year on their 'Sacred Songs from the Hill' album over the Starday label. 

Other cover versions

Bruce on the artist

Lyrics

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 seemed to be a rank stranger
No mother or dad not a friend could I see
They knew not my name and I knew not their faces
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 seemed to be a rank stranger
No mother or dad not a friend could I see
They knew not my name and I knew not their faces
I found they were all rank strangers to me, rank strangers to me