Paris (AFP)

An autumn in Beatles colors: "Get Back", a book taken from the conversations of the Fab Four in the studio in early 1969, the last real year of the group's existence, was released on Thursday as a scout for a documentary by Peter Jackson scheduled for the end of November.

And to complete the whole, an anniversary box set of "Let It Be", planned for the 50 years of the disc last year but shifted by the health crisis, appears this Friday.

"Get Back" is the original name of the project for which the Beatles returned to the studio in London in January 1969. But the tapes of this album were put in the closet.

These sessions will then provide ammunition for "Abbey Road" and, above all, the tracks reworked by producer Phil Spector (known for his famous sound barrier) will give "Let It Be", the last album released (with a track titled "Get Back ").

And the working sessions for the aborted album "Get Back", entirely recorded and filmed in the optics at the time of a documentary film, now provide exceptional material on the history of the legendary group.

The conversations of Paul, John, George and Ringo decrypted from the audio tapes first give "The Beatles: Get Back", a book published by Seghers scheduled for Thursday.

"There are really things which we did not suspect the existence, it is a treasure for the impassioned", enlightens for AFP Michka Assayas, famous rock critic who ensured the French translation.

- "All kinds of myths" -

"I was the first to subscribe to all kinds of myths like + Paul and John hated each other, didn't communicate too much, the aborted album went very badly. + But when you see the conversations transcribed, you hear a great complicity between the two, it works godly, the songs fuse, like jokes ", continues the author of a dictionary-reference of rock.

So far, the images available from this time, in the film "Let It Be", however, showed sharp nerves in the studio.

The Beatles on their arrival at John F. Kennedy Airport on February 7, 1964 in New York AFP / Archives

"We staged a brawl in + Let It Be +, but shouts like that exist in all the groups in the studio, it hit people because no one had seen them arguing before", nuance the host from France Inter.

"It was said that the group was dying at the time, that the outcome was fatal: not at all, it worked well in early 1969," he insists.

Until then, the general public attributed the paternity of the separation to Paul McCartney, who had only made things official in a press release in April 1970. But in a recently released excerpt, taken from an upcoming interview on the BBC on October 23, we hear "Macca" say: "I did not cause the separation. He was our Johnny (Lennon)".

- "We just have to ask Clapton" -

"Lennon sidelined the group in the middle of 1969", abounds Michka Assayas.

However, all is not rosy at the start of the year.

"Right in the middle of the sessions, George is gone: he doesn't want to be the patronizing little brother anymore (by Paul and John). The tape turns and Ringo says + if we play three, you have to play louder anyway + (laughs) and John says provocatively '+ we just have to ask Clapton to come +, we feel that everything is possible in fact, "the exegete still confides.

John Lennon and Yoko Ono in Paris, March 22, 1969 MYCHELE DANIAU AFP / Archives

But Harrison returns.

And Michka Assayas does not want to retain that this episode: "what I perceived, it is the constant disconnade, they are like a bunch of kids who laugh, it is not at all gloomy".

Peter Jackson, director of the "Lord Of The Rings" saga, also emphasizes the joy of living in the studio to announce his upcoming documentary series.

"I have not seen the film, but I was told that there are many other things compared to the book," says Michka Assayas.

The Beatles in concert in London, July 29, 1965 C.PRESS/AFP/Archives

"The Beatles: Get Back" is therefore also the title of this documentary event - more than six hours of unpublished images restored, divided into three episodes - which will be broadcast for three days on the Disney + streaming platform, the 25 , November 26 and 27.

More than half a century after their separation, the history of the Beatles continues to be written.

© 2021 AFP