I think I knew right away that this stanza, found in the third verse of the lp version of Manfred Mann's Earth Band's version of the song (Bruce Springsteen put this stanza in the second verse in the original version), was about male masturbation (and actually it is the only stanza in the whole entire lyrics of the song that would and could be about male masturbation). There is no hiding the fact that this stanza is definitely about male masturbation. But unless you listen to 7:07 lp version you wouldn't ever hear this stanza (the single edit had them chopped off). Bruce Springsteen's original 1973 version had this stanza slightly reworded, but again you can tell this stanza is about male masturbation even in The Boss' original version: 'And some fresh-sown moonstone, Was messin' with his frozen zone, to remind him of the feeling of romance'

I'm not sure I ever found out the lyrics were dirty. But many people are of the belief that this stanza found in the second verse of Manfred Mann's Earth Band's version of the song (in Bruce Springsteen's original version these lyrics are found in the first verse) is one of three lyrics of the song that point out this tune is definitely about masturbation. Although, as has been pointed out to me recently, at the time Bruce wrote the tune he was in bed sick and many people believe with the mumps. So, that factoid would take the meaning of this stanza in a totally different direction.