Any tips for getting up to or near proper speed (album version, not live) on this? I have the notes but i cant quite go that fast. POart that gets me the most is the very first lick where you go C-Octave-C-Bb-C-G-C. Any tips would be appreciated.

practice alternate fingers on your right hand. Do a bunch of string skipping. Make sure you're always doing i-m-i-m.
For the intro of that tune, I start with my middle. Just easier for me.

If you can loop the tune and slow it down, that would be a great place to start. Find at what speed you start to break down and start working from there. You can loop the sections that are giving you trouble and slowly work up the speed. If you don't have any programs that will support that (I know that Media Player slows down, but I am not sure if it loops...I use the program Amazing Slow Downer), just use a metronome. Find a fingering that works for you and stick to it. You'll get it...it just takes a little time. Good Luck! :bassist:

Practice slow and look at videos to make sure you have the right fingering.

Practise slowly,devide the piece into sections be very patient and thorough, not down your fingerings and stick to them once you found some that work( The fingerings that work best for you may very well be different to those you may see on a video.)
Have fun!!

get a version of guitarpro (if you don't already) and download teen town from www.ultimate-guitar.com. It will come up as a tab (stupid I know) but it's a midi backing track for you. You can then use the speed trainer feature which will play a certain passage repeatedly increasing however many BPM you decide per repetition. I learnt Teen Town by simply setting it to repeat the entire piece increasing it by 1 BPM per repetetion from 40BPM to the standard 127BPM. It took 3-4 hours of non-stop concentration. But it certainly payed off.

And just to add: This piece (and with anything else), it comes off best if you start very slow. Build up speed slowly and when you get it up to par, you'll be just as relaxed as you were when you played it slow and accurate (plus you'll look relaxed while playing it, which is a great plus). And play this with a metranome, if you wish, so you can get the feel of where the rests are. In my opinion, the hardest part of this tune is the part you don't 'have' to play: the rests. When you get to the point you can play this without the music and without stopping, that's when it's golden.

when practicing slowly, pay attention to the evenness of the rhythm. Doing things slowly and building speed is the way to go, but when doing it slowly...make sure you are slowing down the full rhythm, not just the tough parts.