The article revisits the origins of the Eagles' 1976 track 'The Last Resort', which Glenn Frey praised as "Henley's opus" and described as the final piece of the Hotel California puzzle. The song, written primarily by Don Henley, closes out the album with an environmental and social commentary that contrasts with the record's earlier focus on fame and excess, marking a shift towards Henley's broader concerns about humanity's destruction of natural beauty.

Henley reportedly spent seven months finishing the song's lyrics and chord progression, with Frey assisting on arrangement and thematic direction. Henley has since described the track's message as reflecting how people ruin good things through their own presence, and told Rolling Stone that "we have mortgaged our future for gain and greed" — a philosophy he later carried into his real-world environmental work with The Walden Woods Project.