"Giving my life to a rainbow like you"

I was always curious about the album cover of Jimi Hendrix's Axis: Bold as Love (1967). Were Hendrix and his bandmates interested in Hinduism? Many boomers were. So imagine my surprise when I read Hendrix's comment in Johnny Black's Jimi Hendrix: the Ultimate Experience (1999): "The three of us have nothing to do with what's on the Axis cover." Hendrix is also quoted as saying that, if anything, the cover could have made reference to his American Indian ancestry.

Having spent a year or so involved with an major record label (in the early 1990s), I can understand how the Axis cover made it through the production chain. Hendrix was proud of his American Indian heritage, enough that it was likely mentioned in his label's A&R file. One could easily see how someone in the art department interpreted "Indian" as South Asian and came up with a concept that had the band superimposed over a mass produced (out-of-copyright?) poster of the three deities of the Trimurti avatar.

Prior to the interweb, I never read any negative comments on the Axis cover. More recently (2014) the Malaysian government banned the record on the grounds that some might find it offensive to their faith.

Here is the title track, in all its gorgeous colours:

BOLD AS LOVE

Anger, he smiles,
Towering in shiny metallic purple armour
Queen Jealousy, envy waits behind him
Her fiery green gown sneers at the grassy ground
Blue are the life-giving waters taken for granted,
They quietly understand
Once happy turquoise armies lay opposite ready,
But wonder why the fight is on
But they're all bold as love, yeah, they're all bold as love
Yeah, they're all bold as love
Just ask the Axis

My red is so confident that he flashes trophies of war
And ribbons of euphoria
Orange is young, full of daring,
But very unsteady for the first go round
My yellow in this case is not so mellow
In fact I'm trying to say it's frightened like me
And all these emotions of mine keep holding me from
Giving my life to a rainbow like you
But, I'm bold as love, yeah, I'm bold as love
Yeah, yeah
Well I'm bold, bold as love 
I'm bold as love
Just ask the Axis (he knows everything)
Yeah
Yeah
Yeah!