"Little Joe the Wrangler" is a classic American cowboy song, written by N. Howard "Jack" Thorp.
[2] The song is about a solitary runaway who is taken in by a group of cowboys and put to work at a man's job.
Little Joe's life ends tragically when his horse suffers a fall during a stampede, crushing the young fellow beneath him.
In the film Destry Rides Again, Marlene Dietrich sings a version with altered lyrics, in which Little Joe is shot by the sheriff.
This version is a reference for "Surly Joe", sung by Tim Blake Nelson in the film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.