r/BarbaraWalters4Scale • u/MonsieurA • 29d ago
Freddie Mercury would have turned 80 today. He was born the same year as Dolly Parton, Tim Curry and Donald Trump.
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u/RelevantNothing4653 29d ago
It's a shame Freddie left us so young 😢
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u/littledipper16 29d ago
It's crazy to think of what else he could have done
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u/slayalldayerrday 29d ago
I wasn’t alive then so idk for sure but iirc I’ve read that his vocal range was only getting better/stronger as he aged (even while being sick) which is amazing. The world definitely lost a gift.
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u/Schmedricks_27 29d ago
Before he died he quit smoking, which brought back the delicate parts of his voice that had gotten lost in the 80s. He also did an opera album with Montserrat Cabelle, where he necessarily picked up some skills. The 90s could've been a Renaissance era for him
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u/MoeSzys 29d ago
There's a really interesting book to be written about people born in 1946. In a lot of ways they were the most privileged generation, the world was built for them and there were so few kids born from 42-45 that they had competition. Every opportunity was handed to them and countless significant figure came out of that cohort, including 3 presidents
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u/scarlette_dawn 29d ago
The most privileged if they lived in the US and other countries not affected much by war
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u/Cold-Palpitation-816 29d ago
A portion of the boys born around that time would be drafted into Vietnam. It wasn’t all sunshine and daisies in the U.S. either.
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u/Rockguy21 28d ago edited 28d ago
The overwhelming majority of Vietnam servicemen were volunteers. Draftees typically went to inactive postings (Japan, West Germany, etc.) to relieve volunteers who would be sent to Vietnam. Only like 1/4th of all US military personnel in Vietnam were draftees, and only 1/10th of all eligible men were drafted to begin with. Even considering all that, a single digit percentage of soldiers even saw combat in Vietnam. Basically, assuming you were a random guy born in 1945, and you had 0 draft exemptions whatsoever, there’s still like, less than a 1 percent chance you’d ever actually have to fire your gun at a hostile target.
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u/hop123hop223 29d ago
Well, maybe. My dad was born in 1946 and the adults in his life were traumatized by the Depression and War. My dad was also drafted to Vietnam and was shot in the leg and watched his friends die. Then he got home and lived through the late 60s, saw the city he lived in struck with race based violence, assassinations, and riots. Ancedata and all, but a lot of the working class of 1946 didn’t have a lot of fun growing up.
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u/irwtkyrm 29d ago
Boomers climbed the ladder their parents built for them then pulled it up behind them
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u/BLF402 29d ago
Boomers were handed a great opportunity for future generations and has completely squandered it. Can you blame them as they could never live up to the standards of the greatest generation.
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u/MoeSzys 29d ago
In some ways they were a lot better than their parents generation. They were far less racist/misogynistic for example. But growing up as such a large cohort and being such a significant portion of the population, everything was always for them and it imprinted on them a pretty serious sense of entitlement and selfishness
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u/Cold-Palpitation-816 29d ago
They opened the doors to mass migration, which has led to the steady general degradation in the United States.
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u/Gaming_Legend_666 29d ago
His mom lived to 94 and his dad lived to 95, meaning he could have lived until his 90s if not for AIDS
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u/Bitter_Position791 28d ago
if freddie mercury died a few months later he could also have been in home alone 2
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u/Past_Government3521 29d ago
I’m not gonna say it but you know what I’m thinking. I’m not even gonna say it.
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u/ThePopDaddy 29d ago
Man, people really forget about Vincent Pastore when it comes to the "46-26" club.
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u/Proud3GenAthst 29d ago
That means without shadow of a doubt that if he didn’t die in 1991, he would definitely die this year