Much of the music developed through band improvisations and mood-inspired jams, often after one member set a single idea. Examples of this are what Banks described as a "Chinese jam" which ended up sharing a track with "The Colony of Slippermen", one named "Victory at Sea" which was worked into "Silent Sorrow in Empty Boats", and another known as "Evil Jam" which became "The Waiting Room". Though the album is written to a story concept, Gabriel described its format as being split into "self-contained song units".
Sides one and two Opener "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" was the last song that schoolfriends Banks and Gabriel wrote together while Gabriel was in the group, although Gabriel maintained that he only wrote the lyrics. Banks had to cross his hands over to play the piano introduction which has unusual sequences of notes. The song borrows music and lyrics from "
On Broadway" by
The Drifters at the end. "Fly on a Windshield" came from a group improvisation sparked by Rutherford's idea of Egyptian pharaohs going down the
Nile, which Hackett compared to
Maurice Ravel's
Boléro. Banks described the part where the entire band comes in, signifying the moment a fly hits the windshield of a car, as "probably the single best moment in Genesis's history." The track segues into "Broadway Melody of 1974", although the two pieces were written independently and only connected later on. Hackett and his brother
John wrote the two opening chords of "Cuckoo Cocoon" at home several years prior, but John is uncredited. Hackett wrote the vocal melody. The music for "In the Cage" was almost entirely written by Banks, who presented it to the band only when it was nearly complete.
(pictured in 1974) contributed vocal effects, credited as "Enossification", to several songs on the album. "The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging" is one of the few songs on the album where the lyrics were written first, and the music was then composed to fit the theme. According to Banks, "I just started playing these two chords, a dopey kind of riff really ... I just keep one note going through the whole thing and just change the chords underneath it, letting it build. Then what Pete did on top was kind of wild and he didn't really make any use of the melodic content of the piece, but I think it works very well." While mixing at Island Gabriel asked
Brian Eno, who was working on his album
Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy), to add synthesised effects on his vocals on several tracks, including "The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging". Eno's work is credited on the liner notes for "Enossification". Gabriel spent "hours and hours" on an out-of-tune piano at home developing the song, and his wife recalled his fondness for the track. The beginning of the song reprises "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway".
Sides three and four "Lilywhite Lilith" was built on two song fragments, both of them written by Collins–a section from the unrecorded early Genesis song "The Light", and a piece that he wrote later on. "The Waiting Room" developed as a "basic good to bad
soundscaping" jam while it was raining outside Headley Grange. When the band stopped, a rainbow had formed. Collins remembered Hackett playing "these dark chords, then Peter blows into his oboe reeds, then there was a loud clap of thunder and we really thought we were entering another world or something. It was moments like that when we were still very much a unified five-piece." Banks regretted not recording the improvisation as it took place, as he felt the band were unable to recreate the tone of the original in their later renditions. "Anyway" developed from a song named "Frustration", which Banks wrote before Genesis was formed. The music for "The Lamia" was primarily written by Banks. After he brought it to the band, Gabriel wrote the lyrics, and Banks brought it home to write the vocal melody. "The Colony of Slippermen" is divided into three parts, but also shares a track with the "Chinese jam" which was never given a proper title. The synthesizer solo was developed as a joke, parodying traditional rock forms, but when played back the band found it sounded stronger than they had intended. The riffs which precede "The Raven" were another element recycled from "The Light". "Ravine" was another piece improvised by the band, with Hackett using a
fuzz box and
wah-wah pedal to emulate the sound of wind. "The Light Dies Down on Broadway" is a reprise of "The Lamia" (the verses) and "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" (chorus), but the latter arranged at a slower tempo. Rutherford and Banks wrote the lyrics, the only one on the album with lyrics by someone other than Gabriel, but were told by Gabriel what action had to take place in them. "Riding the Scree" was played entirely by Banks, Collins, and Rutherford (apart from a brief vocal by Gabriel), with Rutherford playing both bass and guitar. It was a particularly difficult track for Banks to play on stage due to its irregular meter with multiple time signature changes, so he played the solo in
time and hoped to end up with the rest of the band at the end. Genesis were unable to come up with ideas that they liked for a finale, so they settled for a piece Banks and Hackett wrote as an instrumental as the music for the closing track, "
it." Gabriel said the lyrics deal with forming "substance from negatives". The concluding lyric–"It's only knock and knowall, but I like it"–is a play on the contemporary song "
It's Only Rock 'n Roll (But I Like It)" by
The Rolling Stones. == Sleeve design ==