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Originally Posted by strandinthewind
I do not think it was Robin's actual death, but the process of dying that inspired those lines. I also think it is entirely possible that the line "I still see your bright eyes" was written before then about something else.
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I agree with you, surprise surprise.
I think Stevie took that phrase from the Art Garfunkel song "Bright Eyes" from "Watership Down." You can hear Stevie talk about her love for this song in the radio interview with Garfunkel & Robert Klein in 1981. She even sings a little bit of it.
"I still see your bright eyes" I think appears in demos with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers as far back as April 1980.
It's hard for me to believe that any of the final lyrics in "Gypsy" had much to do with the best friend's sickness -- maybe the best friend in general, but not the sickness, which wasn't diagnosed until late summer 1981, by which time "Gypsy" had undoubtedly been not only written but recorded (the band were in Paris much earlier in 1981). By the time it was clear that the friend's illness was going to result in her death within months (because of her decision to give birth), "Mirage" was on the shelves.
Also, there must be some sort of connection between the song & the 1978 UNICEF Year of the Child. Remember some of those early demos of it when Stevie sings "and the year of the child/is enough"? The year after that, the band sent proceeds from "Beautiful Child" on "Tusk" to UNICEF, which must have been Stevie's wish.