One factor that makes doing cover songs much easier is that people out there spend the time and effort to make tabs of the songs. The problem is that the quality varies, but with the help of others, the tabs can be refined and come pretty close to what the original artist came up with.

http://www.powertabs.net/ is a pretty nice system. Once you download their free software, you can download quite a few songs.

http://www.guitar-pro.com/ looks even more advanced and seems to have a larger library of songs http://mysongbook.com/hp-home.htm .

I have used Powertabs for most of my cover songs, but I am going to try the demo version of Guitar Pro. From what I understand from another site, although it says 30 days, it is indefinite for the basic features.

I dont even understand those things....
Ive tried to figure it out myself upto now, by listening.

I just downloaded Guitarpro and then Crossroads by Cream. It is very helpful. It shows the tab and also it has a little fretboard that lights up the string and fret (with the note name) as it is playing to help you can visualize it.

Guitarpro seems to be a much more powerful program than Powertabs.

i've used Powertab to get the bass tracks and check the chords..it's kinda fun to watch some of the solos :D gonna have to check out Guitarpro.

guitar pro is a pretty cool program.
you can compose in it, or load tab into it and it'll play it for ya and show ya the tab as it goes along.
pretty neat for a hack like me.

I recommend Powertab.