It's not so much a matter of gospel origins per se, as tunes everyone knows.I know at least three sets of lyrics set to the old fiddle tune Red Wing, Workingmen Unite, Union Maid, and Earth First Maid. Almost every song in the traditional Wobblie canon is set to either a Hymn (which in those days were commonly sung by the majority of people), or a well known popular song. Battle Hymn of the Republic is a perfect example, from John Brown's Body through the UFW version of Solidarity Forever. Having spent a fair amount of time trying to stir up a ruckus at actions and pickets, I'm here to testify, they gotta be comfortable with the tune and they gotta have the lyrics in front of em or they aint gonna sing! But oh, when they do there's no finer noise made by human throat
For the One Big Song Circle, Dusty