When the Going Is Smooth and Good
The opening track of his last album, a long dance number with a sour message about fair-weather friends.
William Onyeabor, from Anything You Sow (1985)
- Written by
- William Onyeabor
- Released
- 1985
- Length
- 12:53
- Album
- Anything You Sow
It opens Anything You Sow (1985), the last record before he stopped making music, and it runs nearly thirteen minutes on the triple-LP edition of Who Is William Onyeabor? Andy Beta heard the lyric rail against people who comfort you in good times, vanish in bad, or help in knocking you down. Marc Hogan of Pitchfork called it his biggest hit.
Luaka Bop's Eric Welles-Nystrom was told in Enugu that it was a hit there, and that it always came on right before the news. Its title closed the 2014 setlist of the Atomic Bomb! tribute, and Daphni reworked it as Ye Ye for the WHAT?! remix album.
Covers and versions
- Daphni (2014) Ye Ye, a rework on WHAT?! William Onyeabor Remixed
More songs by William Onyeabor
Body and Soul, Fantastic Man, Atomic Bomb, Better Change Your Mind
Sources
- William Onyeabor: Anything You Sow, Discogs
- Who Is William Onyeabor? (3LP), Discogs
- William Onyeabor: Box Set, Pitchfork (2014-12-12)
- William Onyeabor Was Truly One of a Kind, Pitchfork (2017-01-18)
- WHAT?! William Onyeabor Remixed, Apple Music
- Live report: Who Is William Onyeabor?, The Quietus (2014-04-07)