Does anybody know of Pecos Bill and John Henry?

Question

I am bored and I keep posting questions about ignorant people who don't know about Pecos Bill, but I am getting serious answers almost entirely.

Does anybody know who John Henry is?

See Sgt. Rob! That was a non inflamed response and it wasn't bragging about all this power you have and how able you are to kill people.

Answer 1

Pecos Bill hmmmmm I know Ive heard that name but can't think of where. and John Henry would be from the old folk legend of sledge hammer fame :-)

PS oh Yeah Pecos was the One who cleaned up the west. and lassoed and rode a twister :-)

Answer 2

John Henry and Pecos Bill are Tall Tales, along with Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.
John Henry worked on the railroad

Answer 3

Now, everyone knows Pecos Bill was the best,
The neatest cowboy in all the West.

But Bill was also the tidiest, cleanest,
The plain best dressed
Hombre to wear a well-pressed vest
Of buckskin on his manly chest.

Pecos Bill was the best,
The best in the West.

One day, Bill was riding the range on Tess,
The fastest and smartest steed in the West,
When he saw a most unwelcome guest.

It was a twister,
Picking up litter and dust and trash,
And plumb making a mess
Of the entire West.

Pecos Bill was the best,
The best in the West.


Bill said to Tess, "I must confess,
If there's one thing I detest, it's a mess!"

Tess knew that meant Bill wouldn't rest
'Til he'd put that twister under arrest,
Or tamed that blustery, gusty pest
That was messin' up the pristine West.

Pecos Bill was the best,
The best in the West.

Bill started to ride, astride his steed,
Through the dust and the tumbling tumbleweed,
Swinging his lasso over his head,
On his quest to stop that twister dead.

Tess sprang with the springiest spring
That was ever sprung.
Bill flung his lasso with the flingiest fling
That was ever flung.
And Bill whooped, "Whoa!"
To that whirling wind, until
It stopped, like a bulldogged steer, stock still.

Pecos Bill was the best,
The best in the West.

And with old Tess holdin' that twister steady,
Bill jumped on its back, and he got himself ready,
And then old Pecos Bill was sent on
The wildest ride that anyone ever went on!

Well, buckaroos, you can guess the rest of it.
That twister knew Bill had got the best of it.
And so, at Pecos Bill's request,
It cleaned up the mess it had made of the West.

Pecos Bill was the best,
The best in the West.

And easy as you please, that tame twister
Started dumping every last little bit of litter
Into trash cans, not forgetting
To separate out all the recyclables.

Pecos Bill was the best,
The best in the West.

Answer 4

Pecos Bill is from the Old West legends. He supposedly lassoed and road a tornado. John Henry supposedly work on the train lines laying track and digging. Supposedly he could out dig and out lay even machines.

Answer 5

Both are from folklore. Pecos Bill lived in the southwest. He is attributed with riding a cyclone. John Henry died in his race against the machine, however he won the battle.

Answer 6

When John Henry was a little baby, sitting on his mammy's knee, he picked up a hammer and a little bit of steel, and said, "Hammer's goin' to be the death of me, Lord, Lord. Hammer's goin' to be the death of me."
And it was. John Henry was a steel driving man, who worked on the railroad, until a steel driving machine was brought in to compete with him. John Henry died, and "they took John Henry to the White House, and buried him in the sand (?) And every locomotive that goes whistling on by said, 'there lies a steel driving man, Lord Lord, there lies a steel driving man."
Pecos Bill harnessed a tornado. His song aptly describes his predilection for anything other than self-locomotion.
"Pecos Bill, Pecos Bill, he never walked and he never will...."

Answer 7

It is a folk tale regarding a man who raced a machine The race was to see who could dig a tunnel through a mountain.

Another John Henry is the owner of the Boston Red Sox.