Songfacts®:

• Don Henley got more politically minded as he matured, and by the time the Eagles recorded their 2007 double album Long Road Out Of Eden, his songs were often a call to action. On "Business As Usual," he looks at how we've become complacent as corruption and greed have become commonplace. In Rolling Stone, he explained what inspired the song: "The collective unconsiousness of the general populace; how we scurry along, antlike, in our little ruts, day after day, completely oblivious to - or apathetic about - the bigger picture. How naive we are about the inner workings and the destructive forces of big business and politics, the irreversible damage that's being done to the planet and so many of its voiceless inhabitants."
• Henley wrote the song with Steuart Smith, a touring guitarist with the group and trusted member of their team. The band did most of their work on the album separately, using digital file transfer for the first time. Even with these technological advances, it was still a slog, taking about six years to complete. It was their first studio album since The Long Run in 1980, and also their last, as Glenn Frey's death in 2016 shut that door.