Build Your Own Best Of - Steely Dan

When preparing my BYOBOs, I start with the list of songs first (the fun part) and then I write this cursory introductory part. I usually think that I should add a bit of history or a biography of the artist or something to make things more interesting. Ultimately though, I figure that if people are familiar enough with the band to be interested in the list, they don't need my background factoids - and there is so much information available elsewhere that I feel I'm just reinventing the wheel.

But this week I was determined to write something interesting so I went to the official Steely Dan website to do some fact gathering. Lo and behold, it's chock full of history, a timeline, lyrics, and even an open letter to Luke Wilson. I also snagged the very cool photo from there since I couldn't find anything on wikimedia.

I then decided that it's actually way more informative than anything I could write here, and it's straight from the source. So go there, read it, laugh a lot, and then come back here for the list.

Oh yeah - the list. Once again inspired by Nat at Mini-Obs, the idea is the same as always:

Pick one of your favorite bands / artists and list 10-15 songs by that band / artist to compile your own best of compilation.

So here goes - The Best of Steely Dan as compiled by me: