"Green Onions" drum sound

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Hey there everybody, I had a quick question concerning compression and a specific drum sound.

Well, some of my favorite drum sounds can be found on tracks like "Green Onions" (by Booker T and the MGs) and Rumble (Link Wray).

I would post links to these tunes, but I'm a newb, and still haven't made 5 posts yet.

Anyway, I love the way the drums sound on these tracks, very clear yet raw(?) sounding. I was wondering, for those of you familiar with these tunes, is this drum sound actually just a result of lack of compression? And also, when did compression first start to be used in studios (not counting natural tape compression)? I ask because Green Onions was released in 1962, and Rumble was before that, so my theory is that these great drum sounds are actually a result of lack of compression, because compression had not yet been invented. The drums just sound free-er overall to me.

Any thoughts at all are welcome, and let me know if I could possibly be right in my guess or if I've completely missed the target. Thanks!
 
I don't know the tracks well enough to comment on them specifically, but I am wondering if the technique of 'tape compression' was being used.
 
I listened to the track and the drums sound very un-processed, like a raw track, to me. The kick is pretty light in the mix compared to the snare and the ride cymbal-- my guess is that mic placement accounted for that. great tune.
 
I'm sure that whether or not the yused compression is only one part of the equation. Those drums were probably recorded with 2 mics at most, and maybe even just one.
 
"Green Onions" was probably recorded at the Stax Studio. According to Tom Dowd, they had an old Ampex with no more than 4 tracks mated to a kludged-together console. Again, according to Dowd, the console faders were set for best performance of the board and each member of the band would play in turn until the engineer told them they were at optimum level for the entire system. Once that was established, they'd go for a take. Tom said it was very humbling to see/hear such great music coming from gear he considered obsolete.
 
RRuskin said:
"Green Onions" was probably recorded at the Stax Studio. According to Tom Dowd, they had an old Ampex with no more than 4 tracks mated to a kludged-together console. ...Tom said it was very humbling to see/hear such great music coming from gear he considered obsolete.
Click to expand...

This supports my long-held assertion that it has alot more to do with the 'indian' than the 'arrows'.
 
I went on Grooveshark and found a bunch of different versions of this tune, but this one is the icon, IMHO. Anybody else notice that the bass sounds a bit out of tune on the '1' chord, as evidenced by the creation of some beats, which are not present when other chords are being played (on other strings, presumably)?
 
Thanks for replying everyone, I think these drums sound so good because they were probably recorded with just two mics, and left raw, without compression. However, I'm sure the natural tape compression adds a bit of saturation and a tad of pop. Thanks all :guitar:
 
Theres probably not more than six mics on the whole session. I think the 'out of tune one chord' on the bass is it modulating an bit with the left hand of the Hammond with the leslie on slow since Booker T is playing the same figure some of the time with Lewie. How about that Telecaster?!! How about that Steve Cropper? Probably through a tweed Deluxe or something similar. And Al Jackson Jr.'s drums. Solid.

BTW. Compression has been around a very long time. It was used in radio for years.
 
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