ELEMENTAL SUCCESS

Now that he’s 47, Verdine White, longtime bass player for Earth, Wind and Fire, is old enough and wise enough to fully appreciate his band’s accomplishments.

“We’re living in gratitude now because we’ve discovered how very lucky we were to have made the impact that we did,” he said in a telephone interview from Las Vegas. The group plays Thursday night in Anaheim.

“When you start your career, you think you can be successful when you want to be. That’s not true. As we’ve gone on in the business we’ve discovered that.”

The group’s decades-long career led to many discoveries and many hits; EW&F; was the biggest R&B; band in the 1970s and early ‘80s, with 16 top 40 singles. It also produced eight platinum albums during these peak years.

For Earth, Wind and Fire, the flow of chart-toppers stopped after the group disbanded following the release of its “Powerlight” album in 1983. The band re-formed in 1987, but none of its albums and singles since then have managed to duplicate its past commercial glory.

Still, EW&F; has experienced a resurgence of sorts this year. Now a 14-piece touring ensemble, the horn-accented band has been headlining hockey arenas and large outdoor amphitheaters in its Sweet Sounds of Soul tour.

Credit for the excursion’s success must also go to supporting acts the O’Jays and the Isley Brothers. The two veteran vocal groups have an impressive history of their own.

But Earth, Wind and Fire is clearly the soul revue’s selling point.

In the ‘70s, the band was known for staging live shows that were spectacular, even by the grandiose standards of many arena-level pop concerts at the time, such as David Bowie and Parliament-Funkadelic.

Laser extravaganzas, magic acts and pyrotechnics were all part of the Earth, Wind and Fire live act. These theatrical elements have been toned down or eliminated on the current tour, which is chock-full of hits like ‘That’s the Way of the World” and “After the Love Has Gone.”

This time around, EW&F; will please audiences primarily with its music, and that’s a point of pride for White.

“The show is elaborate and pleasing to the eye, [the stage design] has a real high-tech look,” and the bright stage costumes and choreographed dance moves remain, White says. “But it’s not so over-the-top that it takes away from the music.

The current tour has succeeded despite the absence of group founder and leader Maurice White. (Philip Bailey, who provides the signature falsetto of EW&F;’s vocal sound, is still with the band.) Tired of the hectic travel schedule, Verdine’s older brother decided four years ago to quit the road and concentrate on writing songs and producing the band’s albums.

He is still considered a member of EW&F;, and White says he wouldn’t be shocked if Maurice rejoined the touring group one day. “It was a risk at first going out without Maurice because he’s such an icon in his own right,” White says.

“It was scary for a couple of months. But I’ve been pleasantly surprised [that the audience has come around to this band without Maurice]. They really like what we’re doing.”

Sony Music Entertainment also likes what it hears in the current edition of Earth, Wind and Fire. The powerful record company, which owns Columbia Records, the label where EW&F; enjoyed its greatest success in the ‘70s, recently signed the group to a recording contract. (The band’s latest album, last year’s “In the Name of Love,” was recorded for the small Pyramid Records label.)

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The Sony deal is affirmation that EW&F; is not yet ready for the nostalgia heap, and neither are its messages of brotherhood and love, White said. He believes the ‘90s also offer a favorable climate for such a spirit of goodwill and healing.

“The ‘80s was more the era of big money and the era of greed. It wasn’t about high consciousness. Our work didn’t appeal to that era. The things that have happened this decade--the Million Man March, Magic Johnson retiring from basketball because of the AIDS virus, the L.A. earthquake--those things will make you real.”

White says the Los Angeles-based band is also benefiting from a renewed interest in the popular culture of the 70s. “54”--a recent film about the exclusive ‘70s Manhattan discotheque Studio 54--is the latest example of Hollywood’s fascination with the music, fashion and lifestyles of that decade.

EW&F; also performed the Emotions’ “Best of My Love” for the soundtrack to “Boogie Nights,” the acclaimed 1997 film.

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But riding a trend doesn’t compare to having longtime admirers. White said he’s thankful for the fans who have stuck with the band for three decades.

He says the audience reaction at EW&F; shows is often as rabid is it was in the ‘70s. “For the first 20 minutes of the show they usually just stare, because I think they can’t believe they’re seeing us,” White said.

“Then toward the middle of the show they just go nuts because they feel it’s real and we feel it’s real. We have new pictures to sign and older pictures to sign.

“There was a lady recently who came to our show in Atlanta. She brought her husband’s bass guitar. He had died in a car crash six years ago. She said I was his favorite player. So I signed his bass. Those kinds of things are really deep, you know?”

* Earth, Wind and Fire, the O’Jays and the Isley Brothers perform Thursday at the Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim, 2695 E. Katella Ave. 7 p.m. $25-$55. (714) 704-2500.