Green Leaves (Yatta!)
Well before I get started, if you haven't seen the Yatta! movie clip by now, right click HERE and select "Save As" to download it (7.8Mb Requires Microsoft Media Player).
Okay so, what the hell was that? Well it's a song called Yatta, performed by a group of guys called "Green Leaves". You can see them spelling out their name during the song. The song was first performed on a Japanese television show called "Silly Go Lucky". Silly Go Lucky is a sketch comedy show by the same group of guys with various segments like "Ova!" "Cat Players" "Super Fans" and of course "Green Leaves". So of course one day during the Green Leaves sketch they did "Yatta!" and the rest is history.
So what is the song about? Well Yatta! literally means "We did it!" but it's similar in context to someone shouting "Alright!" in english. It's an exclamation of happiness. As for the rest of the song basically it's supposed to be a feel-good, uplifting, motivational song about feeling good about life, the universe, and everything in it. The nakedness and the leaf underwear are just part of the sketch.The song and now the group have made it really big in Japan with the song going triple platinum in weeks. Green Leaves has also spawned it's own cartoon series. Now that the Yatta hype has hit western shores it doesn't show any signs of slowing anytime soon.
Below you can find a couple more images that didn't fit anywhere in this article:
The cover of the Yatta! cd single.
An image from the cartoon series.
Right click HERE and select Save As for a Text file of both the Romanji lyrics (so you can sing along) and direct translation also. (Big thanks to Doug Dlin for these!)
Here also are some lyrics that are not a direct translation but attempts to maintain the rhythm of the song (From nick15.com):
G
R
Double E
N
LEAVES!
G
R
Double E
N
LEAVES!
It's So Easy!
Happy Go Lucky...
We Are The World,
We Did It!
You! You! You! You!
Us! Us! Us! Us!
Yatta! Yatta! Yatta! Yatta!
A student just graduating!
A leader of a great business!
Do we ever get a lucky feeling
A-with our simple leafy nakedness!
Yatta! Yatta! Yatta! Yatta!
Oh-we will be winning the prize!
We will make our nation proud!
We will become a-quite-a healthy guys!
Everybody say: Yatta!
Japan, On Two!
Demo!
Tomorrow Will Be Wonderful...
Who cares if everybody is unkind? (?)
Why bother sleepin' in? (?)
Queue! Queue! Queue! Queue!
Bus! Bus! Bus! Bus!
Ohio! (or Good Morning?)
Yatta! Yatta! Yatta! Yatta!
Nine hours a night we're sleeping
An' we jump right out of bed!
Do we ever get a lucky feeling
A-when we go to work fresh and fed!
Yatta! Yatta! Yatta! Yatta!
you change-odd-weird me
world change-revise
I FEEL GREAT!!
