I've been pondering this phrase and sought out its origin. Turns out it's from a charming poem written by architect Louis Sullivan as he reasoned why the old architecture styles should be abandoned for something new. I can imagine Yo La Tengo singing this:
It is the pervading law of all things organic and inorganic,
Of all things physical and metaphysical,
Of all things human and all things super-human,
Of all true manifestations of the head,
Of the heart, of the soul,
That the life is recognizable in its expression,
That form ever follows function. This is the law.
From "The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered" by Louis Sullivan, originally published in Lippincott's Magazine #57 (March 1896)
