Fold – Oil-Powered Machine / Detroit Red (with Malcolm X), released December 1, 2014
Following in Public Enemy’s footsteps Fold incorporate resounding speeches by the late Malcolm X on Detroit Red and Michael Ruppert on Oil-Powered Machine with force, funk & urgency. The double A-side single stands in tribute to both speakers. Detroit Red was aired numerous times by both Gideon Coe and Huey Morgan on BBC 6 Music. It was also aired on Italy’s RAI Radio 2 which may be the first time Malcolm X has ever had a speaking engagement on that channel.
Credits
Music written and performed by Fold.
Speeches by el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz (aka Malcolm X) and Michael Ruppert
Recorded at Luck Lane Studios, Huddersfield
Engineered by Matt Worsley
Mixed by Seth Mowshowitz
Mastered by Hippocratic Mastering, Leeds
Lyrics
1. Oil-Powered Machine (with Michael Ruppert)
[Michael Ruppert]
Here’s another piece of fun information for you: there are 10 calories of hydrocarbon energy in every calorie of food you eat. 10 calories of hydrocarbon … Why?
Well, you plant a crop – how do you plant a crop?
You drive an oil-powered machine to till the land. Then you drive another oil-powered machine to plant the seeds. Then you’ve gotta irrigate it – well how do you irrigate it? With water. Well how’s that pumped? Electricity. How do you make the electricity? Natural gas or oil or coal – to make the electricity. Then you spray ’em with fertilizers – well, what are all the fertilizers made from? Natural gas – ammonia is made from natural gas. What are all commercial pesticides made from? Oil!
So when the plant’s all grown up and you’ve used all this oil to get it there then you’ve gotta harvest it with another oil-powered machine.
You’ve gotta drive it to a food processing plant with another oil-powered machine where it’s processed with electricity – which is more hydrocarbon energy. Then you wrap it in plastic – which is oil. Then you drive it by another oil-powered machine to a supermarket where you go and whip out your plastic ATM card, pay for it, take it home and put it on a plastic plate which is made out of oil, throw it in a microwave oven which is run by electricity made by hydrocarbon energy; and then you eat it.
[Jimmy Carter]
The energy crisis is real, it is worldwide, it is a clear and present danger to our nation. These are facts and we simply must face them.
[Dr Martin Luther King, Jr]
Procrastination is still the thief of time.
[JC]
We are at a turning point in our history.
[MLK]
The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways.
[JC]
This is not a message of happiness or reassurance but it is the truth and it is a warning.
2. Detroit Red (with Malcolm X)
[Malcolm X]
Ten men can be sitting at a table eating – you know, dining – and I can come and sit down where they’re dining. THEY’RE dining. I’ve got a plate in front of me but nothing that’s on it.
Because all of us are sitting at the same table are all of us diners? I’m not a diner until you let me dine, THEN I become a diner. Just being at the table with others doesn’t make me a diner and this is what you’ve got to get in your head here in this country. Just because you’re in this country doesn’t make you an American, no – you’ve got to go farther than that before you can become an American.
I’m not a diner until you let me dine
then I become a diner
I’m not a diner until you let me dine
I’ve got a plate in front of me but nothing that’s on it
I’m not a diner until you let me dine
then I become a diner
I’m not a diner until you let me dine
and this is what you’ve got to get in your head here in this country
You’ve got to enjoy the fruits of Americanism and you haven’t enjoyed those fruits. You’ve enjoyed the thorns, you’ve enjoyed the thistles – but you have not enjoyed the fruits, no sir.
So I point these things out brothers and sisters so that you and I will know the importance of being in complete unity with other, harmony with each other and not letting The Man manoeuvre us into fighting one another.
No, you’ve got to go farther than that
you’ve got to enjoy the fruits of Americanism
and you haven’t enjoyed those fruits.
No, you’ve got to go farther than that
you’ve enjoyed the thorns, you’ve enjoyed the thistles
but you have not enjoyed the fruits, no sir.
I say again that I’m not a racist, I don’t believe in any form of segregation or anything like that; I’m for brotherhood of everybody but I don’t believe in enforcing brotherhood upon people who don’t want it. As long as we practice brotherhood among ourselves and then others who want to practice brotherhood with us – we’re for that. But I don’t think that we should run around trying to love somebody who doesn’t love us.
Thank you.
I’m not a diner until you let me dine
then I become a diner
I’m not a diner until you let me dine
I’ve got a plate in front of me but nothing that’s on it
I’m not a diner until you let me dine
then I become a diner
I’m not a diner until you let me dine
and this is what you’ve got to get in your head here in this country
No, you’ve got to go farther than that
you’ve got to enjoy the fruits of Americanism
and you haven’t enjoyed those fruits.
No, you’ve got to go farther than that
you’ve enjoyed the thorns, you’ve enjoyed the thistles
but you have not enjoyed the fruits, no sir.