Despite being filled with classic riffs and songs and boasting innovative sounds for its time, the most striking aspect of the Jimi Hendrix classic Axis: Bold as Love is not really the music. It’s the album cover.

Carter Alan discusses the cover in the video above for Carter’s Catalog. Hendrix wanted the cover to showcase his “Indian” heritage, but what he specifically meant was “Native American.”

Instead the artists created more of a Hindu-inspired cover literally from India. He still appreciated the art, but it obviously wasn’t close to what he wanted.

Hendrix was a notorious perfectionist with his music, so as Carter explains in the video, it was surprising to see him have less control over the packaging of his albums. We’ll never know what he really wanted on that cover, but it doesn’t make the musical content of Axis: Bold as Love any less iconic.

– Matt Dolloff, WZLX.com

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