Tunesmith:

Elijah Wald is the coauthor of Dave's book ~ and, because of Dave's untimely death, he wrote the final draft(s) by himself ~ so I think he knows what he wrote!

I just got the book and read it after I had begun following this thread, so when I got to the passage in question, it was easy for me to notice that the work "genius" is never used. The general idea that you recall is about right, though...