Favorite Song No. 358: Con Funk Shun – Curtain Call

You can be forgiven if you asked “why” when you saw a Con Funk Shun song amongst my favorites. You can even be forgiven if you have no idea who or what Con Funk Shun is or was. I admit that I’m not all that sure myself. I know more now than I did when I typed that previous sentence, however, because in between writing that one and this one I did some research. Con Funk Shun were from Vallejo, a city not too far from me. And that’s about it. Not a lot to say about Con Funk Shun. So why is this song among my favorites? Well, for starters, you never hear it, unlike some other classic funk tracks. Take “Brick House.” The first time I heard “Brick House” I was in awe, and I loved it and wanted to hear nothing but “Brick House” over and over. Except, I’ve heard “Brick House” over and over. And over some more. I’m over it. “Curtain Call” is a song I don’t think I’ve ever heard outside of the times I’ve played the record at home, so it doesn’t grate on me the way, say, “Outstanding” by The Gap Band does. There’s something to be said for scarcity.

Still, why this particular song? There are many other rarely-played funk songs from which to choose. And while we’re questioning my judgment, who said song 358 has to be a funk song? Why not a lesser-played jazz song? Well, I’ll tell you. It’s because this is the record I used, or rather records, as I used two copies, to teach myself how to extend a breakbeat using two turntables. Keep in mind that I grew up in the pre-internet era, and at a time when rap music, and especially rap DJ’ing, was an obscure artform. I learned about DJ’ing by reading articles I found in magazines or newspapers, or from seeing short clips on television, or from hearing taped recordings of live performances and trying to reverse engineer what I was hearing. I’d sit with my boombox for hours playing the same few bars of a tape over and over, trying to understand what the noises were, and how to recreate them. I’d play 33 RPM records at 16 RPM on my parent’s ancient, credenza-sized record player that for some reason had a 16 RPM setting, to try to better hear what the DJ was doing. I once read that DJs would use two copies of the same record to loop and extend the drum break portion of a song, and that was all I had to go on– that one short sentence. That was what DJs did, they looped two records back and forth. How? Who knows? I couldn’t Google it or watch a YouTube video. I had to parse that sentence and decide for myself what it meant, then teach myself how to do it.

It became clear that step one was to find two copies of a record that contained a drum break, but even that was no simple task, because, again, no internet. I’d seen a few break records mentioned in articles, and kept a list of them, but I never saw those records for sale in local shops. So instead I had to buy records that looked like they might contain drum breaks. That sounds ridiculous in 2020, but there you have it. Whenever I was able to save up enough money to buy a record– back then that meant $2 or $3 for a used record or $5 or $6 for a new one– I’d pick out something that looked like it had potential. As you can imagine, I ended up with a lot of turkeys in my collection.

Eventually I bought Con Funk Shun, decided “Curtain Call” was a break worth using, and set out to find a second copy. Also not easy, but find one I did. Then came the hours spent behind two janky, mismatched turntables that were not built for DJ’ing while I tried to figure out how to make the beat loop. Eventually I got the hang of it and became the masterfully precise turntable artist you all know and love, and I owe it all to the opening bars of “Curtain Call.”

Also, I really like the part near the end where it sounds like they’re cracking a whip on the 2s and 4s. That’s good stuff.