If so, though, the master who has come to rely on him so much may be mournfully trotting close behind.

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Where Are We Now? is a simple, unfussy ballad - Bowie singing mournfully over a piano motif that slowly builds to an understated coda.

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All she could say mournfully was "we hope, we hope".

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In a ceremony for the winter solstice at the mountaintop monastery of Rumtek itself, drums throb, horns and conches low mournfully, and monks led by a cleric in elaborate robes and a huge black hat consign an offering to the bonfire.

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