This lovely song, originally from Everything Must Go, has only previously appeared on Steely Dan set lists in 2003 and 2015. Its inclusion on 2021’s Northeast Corridor is highly welcome but bittersweet.
A new introduction featuring Jim Pugh’s muted trombone and Jim Beard’s tender while mournful piano is tied to a steady rock backbeat from Keith Carlock and Freddie Washington. That matches the theme of “Things I Miss the Most,” while also harkening back to the tours when Donald Fagen added interludes between songs.
That minute of added material is almost as musical as anything else on this live project. The rest of “Things I Miss the Most” is just as brilliant as the studio version. The only song representing modern-era Steely Dan is just as warm and direct as the studio version.
Fagen’s vocal is also just as effective with the right mix of snark and tenderness. He has no problem with the bridge, despite it being in the upper part of his range:
I had a little birdy friend
By morning she was gone
Birdy good-bye
Birdy bye-bye
The Dannettes are as perfect as ever in duplicating the original multitrack Carolyn Leonhart vocal.
Unfortunately, the guitar leads (which sound like Connor Kennedy) are too low in the mix, ultra-clean and too minimalistic. “Things I Miss the Most” – along with the Steely Dan band’s versions of “Hey Nineteen” and “Aja” found elsewhere on Northeast Corridor – really shows the hole that the late Walter Becker filled on stage.
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