Impossible Germany
Unlikely Japan
Wherever you go
Wherever you land
I'll say what this means to me
I'll do what I can
Impossible Germany
Unlikely Japan
Fundamental problem
All need to face
This is important
But I know you're not listening
No, I know you're not listening
This was still new to me
I wouldn't understand
Impossible Germany
Unlikely Japan
This is what love is for
To be out of place
Gorgeous and alone
Face to face
With no larger problems
That need to be erased
Nothing more important
Than to know someone's listening
Now, I know you'll be listening
Unlikely Japan
Wherever you go
Wherever you land
I'll say what this means to me
I'll do what I can
Impossible Germany
Unlikely Japan
Fundamental problem
All need to face
This is important
But I know you're not listening
No, I know you're not listening
This was still new to me
I wouldn't understand
Impossible Germany
Unlikely Japan
This is what love is for
To be out of place
Gorgeous and alone
Face to face
With no larger problems
That need to be erased
Nothing more important
Than to know someone's listening
Now, I know you'll be listening
Lyrics submitted by Grendelbomb
"Impossible Germany" as written by Jeff Tweedy Glenn Kotche
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
Add your thoughts
Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.
Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!
"Impossible Germany
Unlikely Japan
Wherever you go
Wherever you land"
He is pining for someone who he doesn't know very well. I think she flits in and out of his life. He is wondering where she is headed, figuratively and literally speaking.
"I'll say what this means to me
I'll do what I can
Impossible Germany
Unlikely Japan"
He is determined to be honest about his feelings and telling her is as much as he can do to try to control the situation and he is hoping she will reciprocate those feelings.
"(The) fundamental problem
(We) all need to face
This is important
But I know you're not listening
No I know you're not listening"
He is frustated because she is ignoring or disregarding his confession. It is seemingly meaningless to her.
"(If) this was still new to me
I wouldn't understand
Impossible Germany
Unlikely Japan"
Either he has been through this before with other people or this is just the latest in a series of pleas to her.
"This is what love is for
To be out of place
Gorgeous and alone
Face to face"
They may be individuals who don't fit in and he relates to her in that way. If she would just give him a chance, she would see that they were meant to be.
"With no larger problems
That need to be erased
Nothing more important
Than to know someone's listening
Now I know you'll be listening"
He longs for a new start with this girl. It is fresh and free of problems and fights-nothing to apologize for (yet). It's his dream scenario that she will hear him and want to be with him too.
The problem disappears when they realize that love is "to be out of place." After that, the "Impossible Germany, Unlikely Japan" line disappears and the narrator knows that the other is now listening.
Its about a nation drifting towards the same situations in Japan and Germany in the second world war. There is nothing bad in the German or Japanese psyche that would make them more likely to instigate this. A warning that nothing is impossible and we should always question the power that people and counties adopt and accept as rightfully theirs. If it can happen to countries a unlikely as these, what chance do other countries have. Its asking you to wake up and change before its too late. The fact that Jeff writes it as a love song to his country makes it all the more poignant. A devastatingly intelligent song.
When I first listened to this song as a bootleg, I interpreted it as the band expressing their surprise over how successful they've become. They started off small, and now they're touring in places such as Germany and Japan, something that seems "impossible," or at least "unlikely."
I think dirtyp28 has the right idea, though. It hadn't occurred to me that the countries shared a strange past.