Nothing's Impossible - Week 1 - "Art of Possibility" Prelude

"Nothing's Impossible" is the 11 O'clock number from my musical, "The Legend of St. Nicholas." This is based on the "Autobiography of Santa Claus," edited by Jeff Guinn. The plot starts with historical St. Nicholas in 343 a.d. His incredible generosity blesses him with immortality, and he continues through pretty much all of history until he morphs into the figure we now know as Santa Claus.

Along the way, he meets many historical figures, some of whom follow him on his mission of giving. (they become the "elves," so to speak) Three of these characters are Leonardo da Vinci, Benjamin Franklin, and Willie Skokan, an expert toymaker. Towards the end of the play, the team read Clement Moore's poem "A Visit From Saint Nicholas," and read for the first time how Santa is supposed to have a sleigh and 8 flying reindeer. Not wanting to disappoint the children, they try to figure out how to make reindeer fly, and as they do, they sing this song about how you need to change your perspective to make the impossible happen.

The "Art of Possibility" project was inspired by the book by Benjamin and Rosamunde Zander, but also by Nikki Sixx's "Heroin Diaries." Along with the book, his band, Sixx A.M., released a soundtrack, with one song for each chapter of the book. I'm going to try to do the same with "The Art of Possibility." Hopefully, this will serve to remind me of the practices in the book, and "talk me down" when I find myself in that downward spiral. But after writing the song for the first chapter, (Next week's song) I felt the whole project needed a prelude. "Nothing's Impossible" seemed appropriate. And because the whole thing seems like a guitar based project to me, I re-arranged the piano chords for guitar.

Leo, Ben, and Willie, in the show, are kind of the "brain trust" of Nicholas' mission. When I wrote the song, I wanted to convey that they're all geniuses in their own field. What has always attracted me to bands like Rush, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, and the like is their apparent musical intelligence. The litmus test for that intelligence is their use of asymmetrical meter (5/8, 7/8, 17/2, etc.) and flexible tonality. Because of that, "Nothing's Impossible" is in 5/8, ending each verse in 6/8, with a bridge in 7/8. The bridge also changes key often. I wanted it to be complex, yet very doable. Enjoy.

Nothing's Impossible, Music and Lyrics by Carl J Ferrara, (c)1995

If you need something made, And that something does not exist,
And you think that it can't be done, there must be something that you missed.
I have always believed, and I will believe til I die,
I believe Nothing's Impossible if you try.

Simply take a wild idea, let it loose and set it free,
Find what it needs to survive, that's how it first comes to be.
And If at first you don't succeed, try and try and try again,
you will find Nothing's Impossible in the end.

If you need it, you can get it
If you can't find it, just invent it
If you want it, you can have it
If you dream it, you can do it!

There'll always be those who say "Nay." Just you wait and they will see
exactly how wrong they were when your dream becomes reality
If you simply believe, I tell you you will never fall
Although some things are improbable
No problem is unsolvable
Difficult, maybe, but through it all,
I'm telling you Nothing's Impossible
Nothing at all!