writes:Following up on the Puebla Pride music video, focusing on the viewpoint of the Mexican soldiers, I thought it would be interesting to do a corresponding music video from the perspective of the French Zouaves. As opposed to focusing on the French commander, General Lorences, as in Master of Nothing.
Working with the AI, these lyrics were finalized:
(Verse 1)
The bugle sounded crisp in the Veracruz sun
We were the sons of the Empire, second to none.
From Crimea to Solferino, we’d seen the world bleed,
Now we march for an Emperor, and a debt-driven greed.
General Lorenses told us, "The land is already won,"
That the "backward" would scatter before the first gun.
Six thousand bayonets, a shimmering line,
Marching toward Mexico, drunk on victory wine.
(Chorus)
Oh, the eagles of France were clipped in the clay,
On the fifth of the May, on a bitter-dark day.
We looked for a surrender, but we found a stone wall,
And the heights of Guadalupe watched the tricolor fall.
Vive l’Empereur? No, vive la mort,
In the rain and the thunder, at the Mexican door.
(Verse 2)
We saw the twin forts, Loreto and the Saint,
Against the gray heavens, a silhouette paint.
"They are peasants," they whispered, "with outdated steel,"
But they stood like the mountains, refusing to kneel.
We charged up the slope through the cactus and vine,
But the mud of the mountain broke our disciplined line.
The rain started falling, a heavy, thick shroud,
As the cannons of Negrete roared bloody and loud.
(Bridge)
I saw a Zouave fall, his red trousers stained,
The glory of Paris by a hill-fort profaned.
Then came the machetes — a flash in the gloom –
The Porfiristas charging, sealing our doom.
No longer a march, but a slide through the grit,
As the pride of Napoleon was broken and split.
(Verse 3)
We retreated in silence, the giants humbled at last,
Leaving our brothers in the shadows we cast.
Lorenses is quiet; his letters are lies,
He promised us flowers, but gave us black flies.
They celebrate now in the valley below,
While we lick our gashes in the Orizaba snow.
We’ll return with an army, we’ll take the town yet,
But the shame of this morning? I’ll never forget.
(Chorus)
Oh, the eagles of France were clipped in the clay,
On the fifth of the May, on a bitter-dark day.
We looked for a surrender, but we found a stone wall,
And the heights of Guadalupe watched the tricolor fall.
Vive l’Empereur? No, vive la mort,
In the rain and the thunder, at the Mexican door.
(Outro)
Five thousand miles from the Seine…
The mud is the same…
The mud is the same…
Cinco de Mayo…
The mud remains.
Sonauto again had problems with some of the words, so I checked with Gemini to get the pronunciation right, then plugged that into the lyrics. So 'Puebla' became 'Pwebla', 'Lorences' became 'Lorensay', 'Zouave' became 'zwahv', 'Guadelupe' became 'Guadalupay', 'tricolor' became 'trycolor', 'Seine' became 'Sayn', 'Negrete' became 'Negretay', 'vive' became 'veev'.
The music style was:
French rock, Folk-rock, cinematic, driving percussion, gritty male vocals, anthemic
And the music tags were 'heartland rock, alternative rock, indie rock, roots rock, chamber folk, 2020s, folk rock, cinematic rock'.
Nano Banana came up with the original art, which I edited in Flux Klein to make some minor edits (such as reducing the size of the Mexican flags):
The final step was to combine the music and the art with titles, using ClipChamp:
I've posted the video as a reel on the TMP Facebook page – you can see English captions with the Facebook version.