Fun package

Listeners needn't know all the gory details of the Beach Boys' multiple marriages, drug-use disasters or intergroup squabbles to find the group's musical evolution fascinating.

The 140 songs or fragments -- over six hours of music and studio chitchat -- on these CDs make for a fun-to-play-with package at least as intriguing as any interactive video package.

Since Wilson borrowed freely from himself, quirky musical motifs and sound bites keep reappearing unexpectedly in new guises from song to song.

His super-elaborate productions from the late 1960s reveal just how unsophisticated some of the Beach Boys' early successes were.

Yet the very first track on the very first disc -- a demo of Surfin' USA on which Wilson sings all the parts himself while playing the piano -- clearly points to the man's knack for creativity.

One of the five discs is devoted to tracks never before issued commercially.

Some feature just the instrumental backing with by-now- familiar vocals stripped away.

Another 15-minute track allows us to eavesdrop as Wilson and the band develop their celebrated Good Vibrations in the studio.

Listeners may be amazed at the intricate aural backdrop to the vocals, which includes little bits of bass harmonica, bongo drums, soprano saxophone, banjo, Theramin and even a purposefully-out-of-tune piano.

The whole package includes an interesting 60-page booklet.

One gripe, though: there should be more information about who played what on which track, instead of so much data about how far each song progressed up the Billboard magazine Hot 100 charts.

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