After the arms-for-hostages deals hit the news, the increased public awareness of the U.S. government's covert war in Nicaragua prompted Browne to produce and pay for a video for 'Lives in the Balance' well after the album had passed its peak in terms of sales.

[2] The song, Mark Coleman says in the Rolling Stone Record Guide, "is a cutting slice of social observation," as demonstrated in the chorus:[3] Jimmy Guterman, in his 1986 Rolling Stone review of the Lives in the Balance album, wrote approvingly of the lyrics of the song: "For Browne, our crimes in Central America are the clearest example of the wrongheadedness of U.S. foreign policy.

'"[4] The song includes musical support, as Guterman noted, from members of Sangre Machehual, a Los Angeles Nueva Canción group.

The band thought it was a prank when Browne called them up and asked them if they would play on the album, according to member Hugo Pedroza.

[6] The song also appears in the Bill Moyers television documentary The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis, which aired in 1987.