I think you're right - he's driving perhaps down a broken old highway (invisible planes are cracking the concrete) to LA, and he's cataloguing what used to be there - superhighways and the hybrid American-Spanish culture ("Juan Wayne"). "Calistan" seems to me to be a hybrid of California and places we typically regard as backward, chaotic, despotic and struck by civil war - Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc.
A great thing about this song is the sounds he uses. For example, Ws and Ps: Went in from the Weather When I got Wheezy/I Play some Pachinko, I Play some Pachisi. I also like how he hardens the "J" in "navaJo", it makes the sound work in the chorus.
I think you're right - he's driving perhaps down a broken old highway (invisible planes are cracking the concrete) to LA, and he's cataloguing what used to be there - superhighways and the hybrid American-Spanish culture ("Juan Wayne"). "Calistan" seems to me to be a hybrid of California and places we typically regard as backward, chaotic, despotic and struck by civil war - Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc.
A great thing about this song is the sounds he uses. For example, Ws and Ps: Went in from the Weather When I got Wheezy/I Play some Pachinko, I Play some Pachisi. I also like how he hardens the "J" in "navaJo", it makes the sound work in the chorus.
Great song!