The Chunichi Dragons became the latest Japanese team to edit their official cheer song to suit changing times. With their ballpark’s naming rights sold this year to “Vantelin Nagoya Dome”, the club consulted with the composer of “Let’s Burn it up Dragons” to edit out the line about a “jam-packed” Nagoya Dome to “Battle Chunichi with strong dreams.”
I don’t have the complete list of all the teams that have kept their official songs but only swapped out offended lyrics. I do know that the songs of the DeNA BayStars, SoftBank Hawks and Hanshin Tigers were all written for their clubs’ old names. In the Hawks’ case it was simply a matter of swapping the name of the club’s former owner, supermarket chain Daiei, for SoftBank.
The Tigers’ iconic “Rokko Oroshi” was written when the team was known as the Osaka Tigers. In 1961 the team ditched Osaka for the name of its then parent company, the Hanshin Railroad, the “Osaka” in “Oh, oh, oh, Osaka Tigers, hurray, hurray, hurray,” was switched out to “Hanshin.” This is not as awkward as it might sound, and a lot of really old fans really hate it I understand, but I’ve never known any different.
The same cannot be said of the new hiccup in the DeNA BayStars team song.
When internet game company DeNA bought the club in 2012, it replaced the catchy, “Yo, yo, yo, Yokohama BayStars” with the horrible “Yo, yo, yo, DeNA BayStars.”
Yo, yo, yo, DeNA, fix your damn song.
Just in case you’re unfamiliar with what people are saying when singing “Let’s burn it up Dragons!” I’ve kind of translated it one main version of it. The Dragons are famous for alternate versions and I don’t claim to know where this one fits in, although it is a recent version meant to include interleague opponents.
Hear the dragon's roar echo far away in the night, At jam-packed Nagoya Dome*. We shiver together Way to go, do your best, let's burn it up Dragons! Defeat the tigers, catch the carp, Cloud over Hama's starry constellation. Drop the swallows and the big guys. Hold your breath, we'll win. Way to go, do your best, let's burn it up Dragons! Catch a lion, hunt a hawk, master a buffalo and span the sea. Both the northern fighter and golden eagle will prostrate before the Dragons as we win. Way to go, do your best, let's burn it up Dragons!
Way to go, do your best, let’s burn it up Dragons! It’ s not quite the Four Tops, but it is the same old song.
Here’s a version celebrating the Dragons’ 1974 champions, giving a shout out to each of the players in the lineup and the pitching staff and the bench and coaching staff as well.
