A stroll through the streets of Toronto offers little evidence of this city’s important place in Canadian rock ’n’ roll history. There’s a cluster of clubs along Queen Street, a quadrant of record stores at Yonge and Dundas, but they don’t do much to advertise their connection to great concerts past. Rock and Roll Toronto sets out to uncover the legacies behind these addresses.

Veteran reporter John Goddard and seasoned freelance music journalist Richard Crouse begin their anthology of 40 self-contained anecdotes with the antics of the Rolling Stones circa 1977. It was an exciting time for the band – Keith Richards had recently gotten busted for heroin, and Mick Jagger would soon be carousing with Margaret Trudeau. In the middle of all this the band came to Toronto for a clandestine concert. But the authors’ description of events is a straightforward summary of what’s been previously documented, and will leave rock trivia aficionados craving new dirt.

Much better is a detailed tour of Neil Young’s boyhood homes, which doesn’t add anything that can’t be found in dad Scott Young’s book, Neil and Me, but does at least come with photos and a handy map. A similar approach takes readers to the community where Steppenwolf took shape, and the squalid rooming house where Joni Mitchell resided while she was pregnant more than 30 years ago.

Best, however, are the rock moments that no other book has chronicled well: Teenage Head’s riot-inducing appearance at Ontario Place, The Police performing to a crowd of 12 at the Horseshoe Tavern, and the erratic Kurt Cobain’s bottle-tossing ruckus at a Lee’s Palace show. But even here, there’s a fair amount of padding – inspired by non-events like Ashley MacIsaac’s birthday breakfast at the Golden Griddle on Carlton Street – and not enough details to really make this book a scintillating celebration of the arcane. The chapter on Madonna’s alleged near-arrest on obscenity charges at SkyDome is simply culled from the account given in her film Truth or Dare.

A sense of hallowed history does emerge in fits and starts through Rock and Roll Toronto. But a more playful approach would have served the mission better. Missing from the book are all the sycophants and scenesters – testimonies from the obsessed fans, for example, who might enthuse over the medical-clinic that used to be the recording studio where The Guess Who hashed out “American Woman.”

Rock music has inspired several generations of young people. This account of its history in Toronto won’t do the same.