"I'm not," Springsteen replied. "I'm an errant figment of one of Bruce's many selves. Bruce doesn't even know I'm missing. He's at home right now, doing good deeds."

It's a story that makes a point not only about the folly of hero worship, but also what Robert Louis Stevenson calls in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde: "the thorough and primitive duality of man."

Just because an artist like Springsteen has a keen moral sense, that doesn't make him immune to the temptations of lap dancing.

As Jekyll says: "Of the two natures that contended in my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both."

And so it follows that when I say I deplore lap dancing clubs, I can't promise that you'll never see me in one, while my other self sits at home, typing away with sanctimonious fury.

Some activities appeal to our inner Mr Hyde, and it's a mark of a mature society that many of these are legal.

We all have an inner beast to which we must toss the occasional treat.

And who knows? Maybe Springsteen wouldn't be such a good songwriter if he didn't allow himself a day off now and then to get up to no good.

But when something morally squalid enters the culture, it's important that we see it for what it is, and regulate it accordingly.

That's why I wish every success to the current campaign to change the rules on the way lap dancing clubs are licensed.

Since the first one opened in the UK 13 years ago the number has risen to 300. Five local authorities that have tried to stop new establishments have been defeated on appeal.

The campaigners say lap dancing clubs should be classed as 'sex encounter' establishments, which would give local authorities the same blocking power over them as they have on sex shops and cinemas.

Their spokeswoman Sandrine Leveque said: "Our campaign strips the illusion that you can licence cappuccinos in the same way you can licence lap dancing."

Some of my best friends are fans of lap dancing, and when I raise objections, they waft their hands and shrug.

Harmless fun, they say.
I'm not so sure.

Admittedly, the traditional, feminist argument against them – present women as objects and men will treat them as objects – looks tired these days. Not least because surveys keep telling us that pre-teen girls see Jordan as a role model and 'porn star' as a desirable occupation.

But even if lap dancing doesn't harm women directly, it's bound to do men no good.

And when one sex degrades itself, the other is likely to suffer; campaigners say women living or working near these clubs face increased levels of sexual harassment. That rings true.

Somehow – perhaps because of its exclusive, expensive image – lap-dancing has managed to disguise itself as something almost respectable, when in moral terms it's no more respectable than a copy of Razzle.

Admit it, lads – at least one of your many selves knows I'm right.