table turning backwards

Does it only happen with Ozzy Osbourne records?

It is asking for st pepper. paul is dead, paul is dead

Clip the tone arm in the rest position (use some strong twine), fill up your bathtub completely, and toss the turntable in. If it floats then it is definitely possessed and you you will need to burn it on a stake on your backyard BBQ. If it sinks then it may have only been a problem with the starting winding or its starting capacitor (Try to dry it out although this may have wrecked your turntable. On the plus side at least you can sleep calmly at night and you won't have to clean all your album collection with holy water).

More seriously, just spin the table a little in the right direction before you switch it on...

This actually happened to my VPI Scoutmaster one night. The motor was turning the correct direction but the platter was spinning backwards.

After a few minutes of confusion I found that the motor was too close to the turtable or somethin' and the belt was slipping or somethin' so some movement on the motor and belt corrected the problem.

Shadorne, That takes the prize for the funniest post I've seen in a long time, and in the process you managed to give good advice: check the capacitor. Also, "reverse the plug" assumes you have a two-prong plug. If so, pull it out of the wall socket, flip it over, and re-insert it. If it's a 3-prong plug, you can usually achieve the same end by using a "cheater plug" adaptor, available from any hardware store. However, my money is on a bad capacitor. (You will see a cap installed right where the AC supply enters into the motor housing. That's the one.)