"Everything Possible" by Fred Small (2024)

Words and Music by Fred Small
© 1983, 2022 Pine Barrens Music (BMI)
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"Everything Possible" is now a children's picture book with glorious illustrations by Alison Brown published by Nosy Crow. A Spanish edition, Todo lo posible, translated by Brian Folkins-Amador is also available.
Lyrics
We have cleared off the table, the leftovers saved
Washed the dishes and put them away
I have told you a story and tucked you in tight
At the end of your knockabout day
As the moon sets its sails to carry you to sleep
Over the midnight sea
I will sing you a song no one sang to me
May it keep you good company
You can be anybody you want to be
You can love whoever you will
You can travel any country where your heart leads
And know I will love you still
You can live by yourself, you can gather friends around
You can choose one special one
And the only measure of your words and your deeds
Will be the love you leave behind when you're done
Some children grow up strong and bold
While some are quiet and kind
Some race on ahead, some take it slow
Some go in their own way and time
Some women love women, some men love men
Some leave every label behind
You can dream all the day never reaching the end
Of everything possible you’ll find
Don't be rattled by names, by taunts, by games
But seek out spirits true
If you give your friends the best part of yourself
They will give the same back to you
You can be anybody you want to be
You can love whoever you will
You can travel any country where your heart leads
And know I will love you still
You can live by yourself, you can gather friends around
You can choose one special one
And the only measure of your words and your deeds
Will be the love you leave behind when you're done
The story of the song
In March of 1983, while on tour in the Pacific Northwest, Fred visited his friend Janet Peterson, cellist and singer in the women’s music group Motherlode and a lesbian mom. Over tea in her Seattle home, Janet told him how her nine-year-old son Aaron was struggling with peer pressure to conform to masculine stereotypes-to be tough, cool, and unemotional. Might Fred consider writing a song, she asked, that would let her son know he didn’t have to fit that mold, that he could choose his own path?
The next day, on a rainy bus ride to a gig at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, Fred wrote “Everything Possible.”
The song became one of Fred’s standards on the folk circuit. It really took off when musician Elliot Pilshaw heard it and brought it to the Flirtations, the iconic gay male a cappella group, who arranged it brilliantly in five parts and performed it at gay clubs, benefit concerts, and Pride events on their tours. “Everything Possible” became their most frequently requested song, and the Flirts included it on every album they released. Soon LGBTQ+ choruses around the world were adding it to their repertoires. It continues to be sung by parents and caregivers to children across the generations.
In 2022, after consulting trans and nonbinary friends and colleagues, Fred revised the lyrics of “Everything Possible” for greater gender inclusivity.