In 1985, Shigeru Suzuki released Sei Do Ya. It was his first album in six years and turned out to be his final album of songs. I have no idea how he made his living in the years between then and the late 1990s, when Hosono revived Tin Pan, and next to nothing about what Shigeru did afterwards either, since Tan Pan activity has been sporadic. In the last few years he's been releasing albums with his old high school band Skye (featuring Caramel Mama members Tatsuo Hayashi and Masataka Matsutoya).
Sei Do Ya didn't have any lyrical contributions from Takashi, but in 1986, Shigeru did a few arrangements for the first album by Mami Yamase, on which Takashi wrote all the words. The Moonlit Carnival, arranged by Shigeru, has music by Toshio Kamei.
Takashi's songwriting pace slowed way down from 1990 on, but I imagine the proceeds from the multi-album Hiromi Ohta and Seiko Matsuda collaborations have given him a comfortable financial cushion. Haruomi has Yellow Magic Orchestra money, presumably. Eiichi Ohtaki had A Long Vacation. But what has Shigeru been living off of? I know he did a lot of arrangement work in his soft rock years, but it's hard to imagine that alone could have kept him afloat.
The golden lion in the lyrics is a reference to the Nobuyasu Okabayashi album that Takashi produced in 1973.
:::
This is the street corner of lost children.
This is the baby elephants' parade.
There's a clown calling me over
from inside of a large tent.
This is the ring of fire.
This is the golden lion.
The magician has disappeared
into the mirror.
The strange young boy on the trapeze
gives me a strange look.
This is the moonlit carnival.
This is the chandelier of stars.
They're bringing me along with them
into that brilliant country.
Holding on to the trapeze with both arms,
I fly through the night sky.
This is the moonlit carnival,
the very same
as one I saw in a picture book
when I was just a little child.
This is the moonlit carnival.
This is the chandelier of stars.
They're bringing me along with them
into that brilliant country.
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