You’ve Got to Hide Your Hate Away

People, it was just an experiment. A harmless exercise to see whether the Beatles would appeal to a college student who had never heard their music.

OK, so my subject -- 19-year-old Britney -- thought “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “Rubber Soul” were just short of unbearable after listening to them. And she thought the songs seemed pointless. And she concluded that you probably had to be there in the ‘60s to appreciate the Fab Four.

She’s entitled to an opinion, right? Even if she didn’t know John Lennon had been a Beatle, that didn’t mean she couldn’t pass judgment on what her ears heard, right? All you need is love, remember? We say yes, she says no, OK?

You’ve got me fearing for her safety. I may have to steer her toward the witness protection program. Or, judging by some of your communications, the witless protection program.

Words like “nitwit” and “moron” danced off your computer keyboards as you grappled with Britney’s musical tastes. Margie wrote: “Thanks for validating the reason why I weep for their generation.” Gene thought Britney and I were two peas in a pretty dim pod: “The next time you get an idea this downright stupid, take a trip out to the zoo and feature a chimp, relating his or her views of global warming.”

Like Britney, I can take it.

If nothing else, your replies made it clear that Beatlemania lives on. To an aging baby boomer, that’s reassuring. And if it reassures you other aging Beatles lovers out there, I can tell you that other young people love the lads, too.

Take Ted, for example: “I decided to take a break from my final paper that is due tomorrow to read the L.A. Times,” he wrote, noting he had come upon Britney’s scathing review. “Being a freshman at UCSD, I LOVE the Beatles,” Ted wrote. “Even though I am only 18, I think their music still sounds incredibly fresh today. I have two Beatles posters in my dorm room. It made me sincerely sad that this young lady could not appreciate” the Beatles’ work.

David noted: “I have 300% more data than you: my kids (ages 11, 9 and 8) love the Beatles and have no knowledge about politics, the ‘60s, the drug generation or any other ‘had to be there’ factors. They just love the songs and the vibe.”

Joe, in his mid-40s, said he occasionally picks up a friend’s son and his friends from school. “They’re 11 and guess what? These kids love the Beatles. They all have Beatle songs downloaded in their iPods. They ask me to play Beatle songs in the car.”

Doug thought asking a 19-year-old male would have yielded different results. Saying men are just “wired” differently in such matters, he wrote: “I can play Beatle songs for my fiancee -- acknowledged classics, timeless music that changed popular culture as we know it -- and she remains hardly interested.”

Whoa, Doug. Melissa wrote to say: “As a 20-something Beatles fan with a Beatles-devoted brother in college, I can say that the Beatles do transcend the ages, but unfortunately, ignorance and bad taste do, too.”

Jenny wanted me to help her find Britney “so I might find her and smack her upside her undoubtedly tiny head. I’m only eight years older than her and I have loved the Beatles all my life. Time and place has nothing to do with it.”

Don’t worry, Britney, I didn’t give you up.

Not all of you loved the Beatles (or even “Sgt. Pepper’s”), but it’s obvious you haven’t forgotten the Moptops. Perhaps that says all we need to know about their hold on us.

I’m sorry I subjected Britney to so much abuse, but sorrier yet that she never got to savor the Beatles experience. Here’s what she missed: “I remember the early ‘60s,” a reader wrote, “walking to junior high with that transistor radio tuned into KRLA-AM, earplug in my ear. I pulled that little glass earplug out and turned to my girlfriend and exclaimed, ‘You HAVE GOT to hear this. It’s the Beatles. NOTHING like you have ever heard before.’ ”

Dana Parsons’ column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He can be reached at (714) 966-7821 or at dana

.parsons@latimes.com. An archive of his recent columns is at www.latimes.com/parsons.