In my young day it was always MacPherson's Rant - Farewell just doesn't do it justice somehow. And I think it's missing the point rather to think you have to have been (well) hung to sing it. Did McPherson ever sing it himself? Did he ever break his fiddle? Well - of course he did, I know this because I've seen it in the Clan MacPherson Museum, and Davie Stewart has some interesting things to say about it on the Lomax Archive. No version was ever as good as Davie's for sure & I doubt he much experience of the gallows himself.

http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=12484

The interview doesn't appear to be there. Hmmm...