I am a participant in the alt.music.mike-keneally newsgroup. Lately, there has been discussion and disagreement over who originally said, “Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.” One person attributed it to Elvis Costello. I once heard performance artist Laurie Anderson give credit to Steve Martin. Does any know for certain who first said this?
J. D.
Laurie Anderson. I’d heard this before, but just to be sure, here’s a cite:
http://www.arts.uci.edu/dobrian/CD.music.lang.htm
If you search, you’ll find the quote, and there’s a footnote citing her and the source.
This didn’t get much of a response when it was hoisted a few weeks ago.
And
only said it in the sense that I said it or you said it: she did not originate it, nor has she ever claimed to (she said she heard it from Costello, but it’s older than that).
oops, type-fart. Anderson attributed it to Steve Martin, but it’s been attributed to John Cage, Thelonius Monk, and several others as well.
In any case, of course, its nonsense.
Yes, I suppose I should have been clearer: Laurie Anderson is the one I’ve heard the phrase attributed to, ie, the earliest use of the phrase that can be confirmed by a cite. Of course, if she’s saying Steve Martin said it first, that and ten cents will get you a dime. But I’ve not been able to find another cite for it, and since it seems citations are the basic unit of currency around here, I thought I’d reference one. You know, just for fun.
Being a musician, by the way, I would not completely agree that it’s nonsense. I think it’s a valid statement: trying to delinate what music is, does, expresses, sounds like, even feels like–by talking about it–presents a certain “apples and oranges” difficulty. There are just certain elements not served well by words. Which is not to say that you can’t do it, or shouldn’t do it, or that it doesn’t make sense or isn’t important. Communication (verbally) is extremely important to making music, especially in a group situation. It’s just a different kind of communication. Completely. Anyway, just an opinon. Add it to the amount above and you’ll still have a dime. 
The only person I’ve heard that attributed to is Frank Zappa.