Do I need the bitcoin blockchain for having a simple wallet using the bitcoind (daemon)?
There are "lightweight" wallets, such as Electrum and mobile wallets, that do not require the blockchain to run.  In exchange for this convenience however, their users rely on a centralized server (or servers) to host the blockchain, which is a bit of a security compromise.

bitcoind is the "Satoshi client" and is not a lightweight wallet.  It won't work without the blockchain.