Axis: Bold As Love - Packaging

Packaging

Hendrix was a little disappointed with the album's cover art. Although he appreciated the symbolic design, he mentioned in an interview that it would have been more appropriate if the cover art showcased his Native American "Indian" heritage. The British Track records art department had independently chosen to use the current fad for all things Indian to create the cover, and thus the album's cover has a photographed copy of a mass-produced religious poster of the Hindu devotional painting known as Viraat Purushan-Vishnuroopam with a small, superimposed painting of the group by Roger Law (from a photo portrait by Karl Ferris) blended in.

In November a giant B&W blow up of the fantastic day-glo pink, orange & blue offset litho print over gold foil, Hapshash/Osiris poster featuring Hendrix dressed as a Native American, wearing a feathered War Bonnet, was used as a background to his appearance on Hoepla, a controversial Dutch TV show. This poster, although produced later in London, and supposedly commissioned by Hendrix has text along the top to make it appear as if it was an original poster, advertising his (post Monterey) 1967 Fillmore concerts, this design was possibly what he had in mind. The original prints of this poster are probably all in collections, and later copies which have surfaced fetch high prices at auction.

The original Track UK issue came in a gatefold sleeve with a large B&W portrait photo of the group by Donald Silverstein spread over the inside and an orange sheet insert with overprinted lyrics in red; the allegedly high cost of this packaging was a topic of note in the music press. The US issue had no insert and instead of the group photo inside, had the lyrics. In Europe, the Polydor issue had no lyrics and stuck a 1-inch-wide (25 mm) white border round the inside portrait, while the French dispensed with the original cover entirely and put it in a single sleeve with a photo of the group taken from a recent French TV show on the front.