Murray MacLeod,
I was not suggesting that Alex was mearly a social drinker, I just took exception to the word "hopless". I cannot recall any recording among the many hundreds that he made that were marred by drink, or ever saw him incapable to perform. I felt your remark to be dissmisive of one of the finest people it has ever been my privlige to know.

On the subject of the thread, Alex is the only singer, Scot or otherwise, living or dead, that I can think of that I would gladly listen to perform this song, (including Will Fyffe). The same goes for "Wild Rover."

"You'd take a song I'd heard a hundred times,
When you sang it I was hearing somthing new.
The songs made you cry, that wasn't any act,
You believed in every word of them, your heart was true."

love, john.