Hey, it's Alan, and I just wanted to let you know that you can now listen to the ongoing

history of new music early and ad-free on Amazon music, included with Prime.

Ever hear of Jeremy Bentham?

He was an Englishman, a political philosopher who lived in the 18th and 19th centuries,

and he was, by all measures, a radical.

He was against slavery when it was still very much a thing

for the British Empire. He promoted animal welfare. He believed that everyone, over a certain age,

men and women, should be able to vote. He was against the death penalty. He wanted homosexuality

decriminalized, something that didn't happen

until 1967. And he advocated for no-fault divorce. These are all now the foundations of liberal

democracy. These concepts were not just years, but quite literally, centuries ahead of his time.

And none of these changes came into effect until many, many, many, many years after he died. So Jeremy Bentham was far, far ahead of

his time. Ada Lovelace was another one. She is widely recognized as the first ever computer programmer. Now, computers

didn't exist when she lived in the early 19th century. Heck, there wasn't even electricity yet,

but her notes laid the groundwork for the world of mechanical and electrical thinking machines.

And then, of course, there was Leonardo da Vinci. In the 15th and 16th centuries, he designed concepts for the first parachute, the helicopter, and the tank.

He explored human anatomy, astronomy, art, cartography, botany, even paleontology.

This was centuries before anyone knew that dinosaurs existed.

These people, along with inventor Nicola Tesla, author Jill's Vern, and Terry Pratchett,

an author who predicted the rise of fake news and disinformation on the internet, eventually got

their due, but only after they died.

Their stories got me thinking, what musicians were so far ahead of their time that they

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