Waters of Nazareth

"**Waters of Nazareth**" is a song by the French electronic music duo Justice. It appeared on the duo's debut album, *Cross* in 2005 and was released as a single the same year. It became a major club hit around the world and arrived at #9 in dance charts. The song is known for its only lyrics being "I got the music, I got the rhythm, I got the music, music takes me higher". It is also known for its music video, which was directed by Michel Gondry and choreographed by Blanca Li. In October 2019, *NME* placed it at number 29 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".

## Composition

The key hook is a steady bassline and a female vocal singing "I got the music, I got the rhythm, I got the music, music takes me higher" in continuous chains. Justice recalled that the song "was like making a 49Ers record with a talk box and just playing the bass on the synthesizer". The phrase occurs 36 times in the album version and 21 times in the radio edit. It is composed in the key of E minor (aeolian), while the bass line is in the A dorian mode; Both scales are derived from the natural G major / E minor scale.

Upon analysis of the song, Michel Gondry noted its distinctive structure: "I realized how genius and simple the music was. Only thirteen different instruments, with very few patterns, each to create numerous possibilities of figures. Always using the repetition, and stopping just before it's too much." He also noted the similarity between the bassline of "Waters of Nazareth" and that of the 49Ers song "I Got The Music".

## Music video

Michel Gondry's music video for the song features four robots walking around in a circle on a platform (which represents a vinyl record), four tall athletes (as described by Gondry) wearing tracksuits with small prosthetic heads walking up and down stairs, four women dressed like synchronized swimmers (described by Gondry as "disco girls") moving up and down another set of stairs, four skeletons dancing in the center of the "record," and four mummies dancing in time with the song's drum pattern.

This is meant to be a visual representation of the song; each group of four characters represents a different instrument. According to Gondry's notes, the female represent the singing vocal; the physicality and small-minded rapidity of the athletes symbolizes the ascending/descending bass guitar; the femininity of the disco girls represents the high-pitched keyboard; the "itchy" skeletons dance to the guitar line; and the mummies represent the drum machine.

"Waters of Nazareth" was Gondry's first attempt at bringing organized dancing to his music videos. "I was sick to see choreography being mistreated in videos like filler with fast cutting and fast editing, really shallow. I don't think choreography should be shot in close-ups." The sequence, initially developed by Gondry, was further expanded and streamlined by choreographer Blanca Li. Costumes for the video were designed by Florence Fontaine, the mother of Gondry's son. The flashing lights were operated by the director's brother, Olivier "Twist" Gondry. As Michel Gondry stated, "It all came down to a family affair."

To celebrate *Cross*'s 15th anniversary, a series of videos were re-released through YouTube on April 2022, taken from the "J.U.S.T.: A Story About Dogs, Androids, Firemen and Tomatoes" DVD. These inclduded a storyboard sequence from the pre-production, and a video explanation from director Michel Gondry, and a remastered version of the music video.

## Sampled in

* "Another Door" by The Avenue
* "JSTC" by MessyPandas

## Trivia

* In the original version from "Cross", "Waters of Nazareth" is vocal 36 times.