I've always admired Jackson Browne's "Before the Deluge". The song is about the difficulties of trying to opt out of main-stream society and live a "back to the garden" hippy, counter-culture life style. Many have tried but often their resolve weakens, and Jackson captures this with the lines, "In the ended they traded their tired wings for the resignation that living brings, exchanged love's bright and fragile glow for the glitter and the rouge".