(FORTUNE Magazine) – MOTT THE HOOPLE "Laugh at Me" from Mott the Hoople, 1970 (Atlantic)

Bombast is entertaining only when, like a pyramid turned upside down, it's built on a tiny foundation--you can't help but marvel at all that weight balanced on a single point. Mott the Hoople tried to meld the power chords of arena rock with the sensibility of Bob Dylan. It sounds loony, but for longer than anyone thought possible, that's exactly what they did.

"Laugh at Me" was written by Sonny Bono. "What do they care," Sonny asks, "about the clothes that I wear? What do they get from making fun?" Mott's version begins with a piano phrase repeated with great seriousness before Ian Hunter, in a voice as penetrating as Dylan's, begins the inane lyrics. An organ joins in, then drums and bass; tension builds, is relieved, then builds again until the guitars turn the song into a heavy-metal frenzy. When the last chord sounds, you realize that they got you. You listened to a Sonny Bono song, and its simple plea for tolerance made sense. You actually began to believe that the gulf between Bob Dylan and Sonny Bono wasn't all that wide. Mott makes you wonder: Who's laughing at whom?

--GREGORY CURTIS