The majority of the time I learned from other players or would buy the sheet music and work it out. But it was the first time I had hit upon a track by just listening to it and working it out. I tried it with other songs and had some success but it is easier to get someone to show me or just buy the sheet music and go from there. But by doing it by ear it helped me to identify notes better. Far a long time when I heard something I would write down what I thought the progression was then play it then go and check it against the actual sheet music to see how close I was. And if I was far off I would go back and listen again and again and try to figure out why I missed the right notes. It helped me to train my ear better and keep it sharp.
For me the solo on Heartbreaker seems like gibberish at times with such a fast, spastic blur of notes. It’s chromatic and there is the blues scale buried in it, plus standard 70 licks, intervals and what might be seen as the beginning of tapping. I finally bought the tab for it but haven’t really decided to master it. It has parts of the Alvin Lee’s “Going Home” (by Helicopter) solo in it that you hear on the Woodstock soundtrack — that one I did master — and its kind of kooky in general. Living Loving Maid solo is easy in comparison — mostly major pentatonic but with that quick chromatic run at the end. Good for you for figuring songs out by ear!