Under a Raging Moon

"After the Fire" was the only song written by fellow Who member Pete Townshend for a Daltrey solo studio album. It was initially planned to be played by the Who at Live Aid in July 1985 and is about the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. However, the band committed at the last minute and were unable to rehearse the song, so it was given to Daltrey to record for Under a Raging Moon, with all royalties given to the Band Aid Trust. Townshend explained that it was written explicitly for Live Aid and compares the situation in Africa to a fire and that the concert would be figuratively putting it out. But despite this, it will always still "smolder and burn".

Regular Daltrey collaborator Russ Ballard contributed "Breaking Down Paradise", whilst playing guitar and performing harmony vocals on the track.

"The Pride You Hide" was released as a limited edition gatefold double pack single, which featured the exclusive B-side "Breakout", and live tracks including a cover version of the Who's 1967 single "Pictures of Lily" and a version of "Don't Talk to Strangers".

"Move Better in the Night" was released as a promotional single in the US. It was prominently featured in a popular late-1980s Michelob beer commercial as part of their "The Night Belongs to Michelob" ad campaign.

The tracks "Let Me Down Easy" and "Rebel" were written by the Canadians Bryan Adams and Jim Vallance. Adams appears in the original music video for the former, despite not appearing on the studio recordings for either track. This collaboration came about due to Vicki Russell, daughter of film director Ken Russell, whom was dating Adams at the time – arranging for Daltrey, and Adams to meet for dinner, and when Daltrey mentioned that he was recording a solo studio album, Adams offered to write him a song, before contributing these two for him with Vallance.

According Vallance "Rebel" is about small-town England, as best they could imagine it if, for example, Daltrey had worked in a shop or a factory and not become famous. It is also about finding the courage to change, to leave behind all that's familiar. It was also their best attempt at not writing a "boy-girl" song, and was later recorded by Adams on his fifth studio album Into the Fire. "Let Me Down Easy" was originally written for Stevie Nicks, but it's not known if she had ever listened to it. Vallance was happy with Daltrey's performance.

As with Daltrey's previous studio album Parting Should Be Painless (1984), he covered a Kit Hain song in "Fallen Angel".

"It Don't Satisfy Me" is the shortest track on the album, and was co-written by producer Alan Shacklock, and Daltrey. As with "Move Better in the Night" it features a harmonica solo by Mark Feltham.

The album's final and title track "Under a Raging Moon" was written by John Parr (of "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)" fame) and Julia Downes. It was said that John Entwistle had wanted to perform this song with the Who instead of "Won't Get Fooled Again" at Live Aid, but Pete Townshend disagreed so Entwistle decided to record his own version on his live solo album Left for Live (1999) as a further tribute to Moon.

The album featured Ringo Starr of the Beatles' son Zak Starkey playing drums; this was Starkey's second studio album that he had worked on, the other being Sun City released in the same year by the protest group Artists United Against Apartheid. It was also his first work with a Who member, working around the same time with John Entwistle on The Rock (1996), originally planned for release in 1986. Starkey went on to tour and record with the Who from 1996 to 2025.

For the first time since his third solo studio album One of the Boys (1977), Daltrey is credited as a co-writer on four tracks: "Don't Talk to Strangers", "The Pride You Hide", "Move Better in the Night" and "It Don't Satisfy Me", this would be the most co-writes that he'd contribute until his eighth solo studio album Rocks in the Head (1992).

Daltrey later recalled "That was the album I really wanted to make ... it got great airplay and sold an awful lot."