As with his 1974 debut solo album Men Opening Umbrellas Ahead, it consists entirely of songs, rather than the comedy-narrative-with-integral-songs of its immediate predecessor Sir Henry at Rawlinson End.

Teddy Boys Don't Knit was written during Stanshall’s residence at his Thames river houseboat Searchlight with his second wife Ki Longfellow, his stepdaughter Sydney and his infant daughter Silky – a period which Longfellow has described as Stanshall’s "first, real and only taste of family life.

"[2][3] Consequently, several songs on the album have domestic themes: "The Tube" (written for and about Silky Stanshall and her infant digestive process), "Bewilderbeeste" and "Calypso to Colapso" (for and about his love of Ki), "Fresh Faced Boys" (dealing with Stanshall’s struggle against his own father’s wishes for him to be well-groomed, well-behaved and socially presentable) and "Possibly an Armchair", in which Stanshall muses on ageing and on whether in old age he is likely to become the same kind of person as his elderly father had himself become.

The title of "Flung a Dummy" is taken from an unusual phrase which Stanshall had heard a stranger on a train use as a euphemism for dying, while "Ginger Geezer" is written almost entirely in Cockney rhyming slang.

[2][3] As he had on Men Opening Umbrellas Ahead, Stanshall made use of the musical talents of his fellow former Bonzo Dog Band members Neil Innes and Roger Ruskin Spear, his frequently-called-on musical director Pete Moss and multi-instrumentalist Jim Cuomo.