KISS and The Spirit of '76

Anyone reading this blog probably knows by now that Dazed and Confused takes place heading into the summer of 1976.  As evidenced by the banner seen hanging on the wall at the Little League field as Mitch exits toward the right field gate to accept his fate and take the heat off Carl and Tommy, it was smack dab in the middle of the United States of America's Bicentennial celebration, honoring the 200th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Another Dazed nod to 1776 is the statues that end up getting painted with KISS makeup.  Yes, Director Richard Linklater wanted a Ronald McDonald statue, because that's what someone did while he was in high school, but that wasn't happening, so he settled for the 1776 statues you see in the movie.  Loyal Dazed fans will know from the deleted scenes that these statues were stolen from outside a local bank (running a Bicentennial special, I might add) in the middle of the night by Pink and Don.  

The statues are supposed to be bronze replicas of the three American Revolutionary soldiers depicted in the painting The Spirit of '76 by Archibald Willard.  Mr. Willard created the painting in 1875 for the Centennial celebration.  

As you can see, the original has two drummers and a third man playing the flute.  In the deleted scene, Pink and Don only steal two of the three statues because when Don asks if they're going back to get the other "drummer boy", Pink says no because he's waaaay too heavy.  The two statues end up being face-painted by Michelle to look like Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley.

Of course, KISS is featured on the Dazed soundtrack with "Rock and Roll All Nite".  That song was the first single from the 1975 KISS album Dressed To Kill.  The song and the album didn't do very well, but then they released their first live album, Alive, and the band took off.  This is where I recently stumbled across something I didn't know, a little extra tie in between KISS, Dazed, and the summer of 1976.

KISS released their next album, Destroyer, in March of 1976 and immediately kicked off a big tour from April through September.  Wooderson and the gang drove to Houston to get those Aerosmith tickets for June 24th, 1976, and perhaps they went back a little later to get KISS tickets because they played Houston on August 13, 1976.  It was officially called "The Destroyer Tour", but was also known as "The Spirit of '76" Tour!  KISS even did some marketing to support that Bicentennial name.  The record company sent promotional material for the tour dates, the new record and the band's back catalog to record stores, like this:

The band even did a photo shoot to promote The Spirit of '76 Tour, with guitarist Ace Frehley holding a Revolutionary-era US flag and drummer Peter Criss wearing a bloodied head bandage and wearing his snare drum like a marching drum.

 

So, the movie has statues of the Spirit of '76 being painted like KISS in the summer of 1976, and that same summer KISS promoted their tour by dressing up and acting like the soldiers in the Spirit of '76 painting!  My mind is blown.  If Slater was here, he'd be freaking out right now.

My question is, did Linklater or someone involved with the production of Dazed know this, or was it all just coincidence that they picked those specific statues to replace Ronald McDonald?