ambitious piece on Axis, the extravagant metaphors of the lyrics suggesting a growing confidence" in Hendrix's songwriting. His guitar playing throughout the song is marked by chordal arpeggios and contrapuntal motion, with tremolo-picked partial chords providing the musical foundation for the chorus, which culminates in what musicologist Andy Aledort described as "simply one of the greatest electric guitar solos ever played". The track fades out on tremolo-picked thirty-second note double stops. In 2011, Guitar World ranked the track number 24 in a list of Hendrix's 100 greatest performances. Artwork and packaging The album cover depicts Hendrix and the Experience as various forms of Vishnu, incorporating a painting of the musicians by Roger Law, from a photo-portrait by Karl Ferris. Melody Maker journalist Nick Jones described the artwork as a "beautiful fold out package" that compensated for the "very poor presentation" of Are You Experienced. Likening the design to the cover image on the Beatles' recent Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, he said it showed Hendrix "with a lot of freaky looking Indian cats and gods, sages and one guy with an elephant's trunk for a nose or something!" Hendrix expressed dismay at the choice of cover art. He stated that the cover would have been more appropriate had it highlighted his Native American heritage. The painted image of the Experience was then superimposed on top of a copy of a mass-produced religious poster. Hendrix commented: "The three of us have nothing to do with what's on the Axis cover." Unlike the previous album's cover art, both the UK and US editions featured the same image. Some Hindus have since expressed anger over the use of religious images for the album's artwork. The Malaysian government's Home Ministry instituted a ban on the album's art in response to complaints. Release and reception Track released Axis: Bold as Love in the UK on December 1, 1967, where it peaked at number five and spent 16 weeks on the charts. In February 1968, it charted at number three in the United States. The album was also well received by music critics, who praised its mixture of hard rock, rhythm and blues, and jazz. In his preview of the album for Rolling Stone, Nick Jones described it as "at times shatteringly beautiful" and highlighted "Spanish Castle Magic". Reviewing Axis in the same publication, Jim Miller hailed it as "the refinement of white noise into