Patti Smith: Very special sound

THE BEST new rock music in the area is taking place this weekend (Thursday to Sunday) and next (April 17-20) at a scruffy Bowery bar in lower Manhattan, called CBGB ($3 covers two drink minimum). The attraction is a young poet-turned-singer named Patti Smith and her band. Though the setting is anything but chic and the group's instrumentation anything but impressive, there's little doubt that this is the most original music to emerge from New York since the New York Dolls and the Mercer Arts Center craze two years ago.