in some rare cases when the competition for a keyword is almost Non-Existent and you have a great looong page with a lot of text relevant to this keyword and a good on-page optimisation then you may still get the rankings without links however for competitive keywords : in one word no.. there is noway you will get good rankings without backlinks. indirectly if you have a great content and a nice website that people want to visit, then your awesome content will get you the rankings (because people will link to your website).. at the end it's all about links.
True, Contents are important, but keep in mind that your targeted keywords should be hightlighted more.
So Funky Mario, you are saying that content is king. Yet you elaborated into the fact that it is what keeps people coming back. What people want and need on a regular basis. Excellent.
Backlinks are gonna be the most important if you are competing for a popular keyword. You can also rank well for semantic text if your site is related and has high authority (ie. you own #1 site for your market, and someone searches related term).
i seconded funkymario, if you really wanted to have a good impression with google and other SE then make it clean.do the hard work in getting backlinks as much you can.
You can make out by releasing some stickers and distribute it else you can put some ad on social networks