Described as a loose concept album, The Serpent Is Rising contains a number of sexual innuendos. The baroque prog "The Grove of Eglantine" (written by DeYoung) was about a woman's vagina. It has some harpsichord and accordion, to give a British/European sound.
The proggish title track was written by John Curulewski, is about the serpent beginning to rise. Musically, it has some King Crimson influence especially on their debut album.
The screaming spoken word "Krakatoa" by Curulewski was named for the volcano event of the same name in 1883. It features an ending glissando which was taken from a Beaver and Krause track called "Spaced" in 1970, for which they were credited on the album.
The acoustic bluesy track "As Bad as This" by Curulewski has a hidden track called "Don't Sit Down on the Plexiglas Toilet" which is a calypso humor about a boy who is sitting on a Plexiglas toilet and having problems. The track features only Curulewski and the Panozzo brothers. The song was played on the Dr. Demento radio show and "Weird Al" Yankovic supposedly loved it.
The album also includes James Young rockers "Witch Wolf" and "Young Man", the upbeat "Winner Take All" (written by DeYoung and sung by Young) and the boogie-woogie track "22 Years" (written by Curulewski but sung as a duet by DeYoung and Young); the outro for that track features the producer and president of Wooden Nickel records Bill Traut on saxophone.
The prog rocker "Jonas Psalter" was written by DeYoung and sung by Young. Lyrically, it was about pirates. Musically, it has elements of the contemporary sound of Yes, and also featured a Moog synthesizer.
The album finished with Handel's Hallelujah classical piece, features all the band members singing and DeYoung played a pipe organ on cathedral in Chicago.
Styx considers The Serpent Is Rising to be their worst recording. Dennis DeYoung is indirectly quoted as saying it was "one of the worst recorded and produced in the history of music."
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Serpent_Is_Rising)